


prologue - ayakashi

by starlightkun



Series: ayakashi [1]
Category: NCT (Band), NCT 127 - Fandom, NCT Dream, WAYV
Genre: Angst, Ayakashi, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, like the otome game, no spoilers for the game by reading this, that was the inspiration but its essentially my own lore, uh its like a modern ayakashi romance reborn au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-07
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:15:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 24,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26879560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starlightkun/pseuds/starlightkun
Summary: in which one fateful visit to an unassuming cafe throws you headfirst into the world of ayakashi, one you’d never known had existed until now
Relationships: Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun/Reader, Lee Jeno/Reader, Qian Kun/Reader, everybody x reader lmao, more to come but those r the only routes out at the moment
Series: ayakashi [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1961095
Comments: 6
Kudos: 18





	1. [one]

**Author's Note:**

> ⇁ extra info: heavily based off yet another otome game, ayakashi: romance reborn ; bc of this, all the lore used in here is inspired by/based on/taken from the lore of the game, not the actual lore of traditional ayakashi/yokai stories
> 
> ⇁ DISCLAIMER: some aspects of plot and character traits are directly lifted from the game and utilized in the character equivalents in this story; the base lore, plot, and characters were heavily inspired by the game, however it has all been transformed into my own story. there are no spoilers for the game by reading this series

The shrill sound of your alarm roused you in the morning, garish and unwelcome. You were awake before the sun, as per usual for the weekdays. Swinging your legs over the edge of the bed, you rubbed at your eyes. There was a sudden soft warmth pushing against your arm.

“Good morning to you too, Tama,” you chuckled as your white cat delicately climbed into your lap.

You hadn’t even realized that your cat had woken as well, his footsteps too light to register as dipping into the mattress beside you. Tama let out a soft purr as you lightly rubbed behind his ears, rolling onto his back to playfully swat at your hand. You wished you could stay like this forever, but you had to get ready for your day.

As soon as Tama felt you shifting underneath him, he gracefully leapt to the floor, eagerly following you out of your bedroom. He knew exactly what was coming.

In the small kitchen of your equally small apartment, your first course of action after turning the light on was to grab Tama’s bowl from the floor. He continued vocalizing his impatience as you scooped his wet food into the bowl. Then nearly tripped you by wrapping his lithe body around your ankles as you shuffled back across the kitchen to set his food bowl down beside his water bowl. As he dug in, you refreshed his water supply before starting on your own breakfast.

You perched yourself on your coffee table, food in hand as you looked out your window, watching the sun rise. Tama had finished eating his food before you’d even prepared yours, and sat on the arm of the couch, head tilted as he observed you. Cats were smart and had their own unique personalities like people, you knew that, but for some reason Tama always reminded you more of a person than a pet. He frequently watched you as you went about your day in the apartment, and you swore he got as invested in your TV shows as you did.

Your food was finished quickly, and the sun was almost fully up, golden rays reflecting off Tama’s white fur as his blue irises kept their focus on you.

“If you had opposable thumbs, I’d think you’d be taking notes right now,” you remarked to him aloud as you set your empty plate and utensil on the table behind you, making yourself chuckle. “Observations of your subject in her natural habitat.”

Tama immediately launched himself into your empty lap, thrusting his head underneath your hand insistently.

“My handsome little scientist, right?” You immediately gave in to his wishes, petting along his soft fur. He gave a short _mrow_ in response, rubbing his head against your hand in a way that almost seemed as if he were nodding to affirm your comment.

* * *

Right as you were slipping your backpack on by your door, there was a soft pawing at your ankle, and you looked down at the culprit with remorse. Squatting down, you pet Tama again with a sigh, “I’m sorry, love, but I have to go to class. You always make me feel so guilty every time I leave. I’d bring you if I could.”

Tama let you know exactly how upset he was about you leaving him, tail swishing with displeasure.

“Look, my classes are done at two today, then I’ve got to work at my parents’ shop.”

You swore your cat froze for a split second at that information before pushing and rubbing his forehead against any bit of skin he could access. When you’d gotten a cat, you’d read up on every piece of online literature about owning a cat and cat behavior that you could. Tama was scenting you, marking you as his family, his human before you left him for the day. Affectionately, you let him continue this for another moment, happy for the love and companionship your pet brought you.

On reluctant legs, you stood back up, readjusting your bag on your shoulders and reaching for the door handle.

“Bye, Tama. Don’t throw any wild parties while I’m gone, okay?”

With that final lighthearted warning, you departed from your apartment.

* * *

Almost as soon as you had set foot on the quiet campus of your local community college, you’d been found. A figure rushing at you from the very edge of your periphery caught your attention, and you braced yourself for impact. Arms wrapped around you, enveloping you in a familiar embrace.

“Morning, Jaemin,” you giggled, patting your friend on the back.

“Morning, Y/N!” He let go of you to straighten back up, and it was then that you could see the two other people with him.

“Hey Yuta, Jaehyun,” you greeted the upperclassmen as well.

The four of you had all known each other for quite a few years, seeing as your college was pretty much just an extension of grade school. Everyone who attended had also gone to your high school, so most everybody knew everybody.

Na Jaemin was a little more special, as you’d known each other since diapers, best friends since preschool, and he never missed an opportunity to remind you and anybody else of that fact.

Nakamoto Yuta was a few years older than you and Jaemin, in his last year of undergrad. Mostly you knew him through the occasional interaction in high school, and through the other upperclassman with you.

Jung Jaehyun’s father was friends with your father, so you’d grown up around the older boy for most your life. He’d shown you to your class on the first day of your freshman year of high school and would offer you a friendly smile or greeting if you passed him in the halls at school. Always just a family friend, an acquaintance. But now you’d actually call him one of your friends, a revelation that delighted both your fathers.

He affectionately ruffled your hair, “You always surprise me with how resilient you are, Y/N.”

“What?”

“I’ve yet to see Jaemin knock you over,” he referenced your childhood friend’s high velocity and forceful hug, making you laugh lightly.

“I would never hurt Y/N! We’re best friends!” The younger boy insisted, and you felt a light touch against your arm.

Looking at Yuta curiously, you saw him brushing at the white fur that starkly contrasted your black shirt.

“You’ve always got cat fur all over you, Y/N,” Yuta commented, feigning disappointment as he facetiously chastised you.

“Tama doesn’t let me out the door until he’s coated me in it,” you informed him, allowing him to continue cleaning you off. “Thanks, Yuta.”

Jaehyun spoke up again, “We should get going, Y/N. So should you two, don’t you have class as well?”

“Oh, such a responsible TA,” Jaemin mocked him lightheartedly, agreeing nonetheless.

Giving your friends a goodbye, you took off with Jaehyun towards your class. He was the TA for your World Literature class, providing help for both the professor and the students. Prior to this semester, you hadn’t really spoken to him in nearly a year, making it a rather pleasant surprise when you walked in on the first day and got your syllabus handed to you by none other than Jung Jaehyun. Despite growing up with him, you two were never really all that close until lately.

“Did you do the assignment, Y/N?” Jaehyun questioned you as he held the building door open to you.

“I’m hurt you’d doubt me, Jaehyun,” you shot back.

“You didn’t do the last one,” he pointed out.

“It wasn’t worth my time! If something’s not worth my time, I’m not gonna do it.”

“That’s how you almost failed Leadership Skills in high school. The easiest fucking class ever.”

Rolling your eyes, you navigated the familiar halls with him, “Yes, I know, my teacher lamented that I was so smart but wasn’t using my intellect correctly. One of my many faults. But seriously, I did the assignment this time.”

“I’ll believe it when it’s in my hand,” Jaehyun said frankly right as you entered the classroom.

The two of you broke off then, you headed into the rows of desks as Jaehyun went to set his bag down at his chair beside the professor’s desk. A couple of your classmates looked up when you entered, eyes flicking between the two of you before returning to their phones. You knew that some of your classmates were suspicious of your friendship with Jaehyun. After all, fucking the hot TA seemed like an ideal situation. But you weren’t, and Jaehyun afforded you no special treatment when it came to class; he took his TA position very seriously.

You took your seat beside another familiar face from grade school, Mark Lee. During school, you’d always known of each other, but since you ran in different friend groups you’d never talked until you ended up in this class together.

“Good morning, Mark,” you sat beside him.

His eyes blinked slowly behind his silver frames, his red hoodie pulled up over his head as he was clearly still tired, “Morning.”

“How was your weekend?”

He gave a noncommittal response to your question, still moving in slow-motion as he brought his cup of coffee up to his lips.

“Sounds fun,” you quipped, retrieving your assignment from your bag.

* * *

After your last class was dismissed, you had to immediately rush out of the classroom. You’d promised your parents that you’d be at the shop fifteen minutes after your class ended. Your parents ran a bookstore in the town center, and the street it was on was practically your second home. When they were in the shop during your childhood, you’d either be inside reading whatever books you could get your hands on or playing along the sidewalks of Bell Street that ran in front of it and the other storefronts.

That’s why when the first task your mother gave upon your arrival was to deliver a couple books to a restaurant down the street, you were surprised. You’d never heard the name before in your life. Admittedly, you hadn’t been around recently, as your schedule for this semester had gotten busier and your parents finally hired another employee. It was possible that this ‘Lenticular Café’ could’ve opened up without your knowledge.

As you took off down the sidewalk with the two books, your eyes glanced over the titles. Cookbooks. Why would an established restaurant need to purchase cookbooks?

When you walked into the cute little café, you found that it was devoid of patrons. The hours were listed on the doors, it was clearly open right now. Maybe nobody really knew about it yet. In fact, it was devoid of anybody at all, not even a staff member was in sight.

Right as you were about to call out into the empty establishment, the purple curtain you assumed led to the kitchen rustled to allow a boy to pass through. Immediately his sharp eyes landed on you, and judging by his uniform and purple apron, he was an employee.

He seemed about to say something when he zeroed in on the books in your hand.

Awkwardly, you cleared your throat, “Uh, hello, I’m here to deliver your order from—”

“Bibliophile Books, yes, I know,” he cut you off, reaching into his pocket to pull out some cash. “Here’s your payment.”

You handed him the books as you accepted the money, and immediately knew that this was more than the books were supposed to be, “I’m sorry, I don’t have a way to make change for you right now.”

The boy seemed annoyed at just your presence before, but at this he downright rolled his eyes, opening his mouth to say something surely scathing.

“Renjun, don’t go off on the little lady. She can keep the change.”

The deeper voice that had stopped the young boy in his tracks came from behind him. A taller, older man had emerged from behind the curtain as well, easy smile on his lips as he changed his focus to you.

“Don’t mind Renjun, he means well. Thank you, miss.”

“You’re going to make us bankrupt, old man,” the boy identified as Renjun grumbled, crossing his arms.

“Oh, don’t worry, it’s _my_ establishment, not yours.”

“Yes, but if you’re bankrupt, you can’t pay me.”

Despite their bickering, the man still had that same relaxed smile on his face, and you could see that the two of them had some kind of friendship outside of just work.

“I’ll make change at the shop and bring it back for you,” you promised, drawing their attention to you again.

The man waved a hand towards you, “Don’t worry about it, little lady. Despite what Renjun thinks, a few extra bucks aren’t going to close the restaurant. Think of it as a tip, for yourself, or the owners, I don’t care which.”

Arguing with him wasn’t going to work, and you were starting to get a little flustered under his handsome and attentive gaze.

“Thank you.”

“I haven’t seen you around, miss.”

“My parents own the bookstore, I come and help out here and there between classes and such, but it’s been a while. I honestly didn’t even realize this place was here until today,” you informed him sheepishly, then realized you hadn’t even properly introduced yourself to either of them. “Oh! I’m sorry, I’m Y/L/N Y/N, by the way.”

“I’m Johnny Seo,” the older man returned your introductions. “I’m the owner. And this is Huang Renjun, my best employee.”

“I’m also your only employee, old man,” Renjun scoffed, but nonetheless gave you his own short greeting. “Like he said, I’m Renjun.”

“Despite what he says, I’m not actually that old, I promise, miss.”

A small smile tugged at the corner of your mouth at their interaction, “Well it’s nice to meet you both. I’ve got to be heading back to the store now.”

“Bye, little lady,” Johnny bid you farewell. “Come visit us when you’re not working, I’d be glad to cook for you.”

“I will, thank you,” you promised before taking leave of the restaurant.

* * *

When you were returning to the bookstore after your delivery to Lenticular Café, you caught a flash of black fur turning into the alley beside the shop. You eagerly peered around the corner, knowing exactly what would be there. At some point, a fox had taken up residence around your parents’ store. When you had first noticed it some months ago, you left it well alone, not knowing how wild it was, or if it was feral or rabid. But that only lasted a day, as it was incredibly friendly, not afraid at all of humans as it had romped right up to you as you were sat on the stoop then, resting its head in your lap.

Since then, it was always sure to find you whenever you were there, and today was no different. There it was, basking in a puddle of sunshine.

“Hey, buddy!” Your voice made it jump up, eagerly bounding over to you as you knelt down at the entrance. The alley was mostly just for the store’s trashcan and anything else you might want to put there, making your actions rather innocuous.

The fox launched into your arms, and you giggled as it buried its muzzle into your neck. Its tongue poked out to give you a couple licks, and you squirmed at the ticklish feeling. It was bigger than Tama, reminding you more of your childhood dog in size, but a rather affectionate mix of both.

“Oh, did you miss me?” You questioned it teasingly as it continued its loving assault on your neck. “I know, I haven’t been around in a while. Are my parents treating you good? They don’t really believe me when I say how nice you are, but they promised they’d put out food scraps for you.”

It squirmed a bit in your arms, readjusting to gently take your hand in its mouth. The first time it held your hand between its teeth, you were afraid of what those sharp canines would do, but now you knew that was just another way for it to show affection. You often wondered how lonely this fox was, for it to be so attached and affectionate with you, some random human. If maybe its family had died, or it had been abandoned as a pup.

You remained with the fox for just a little more before you deemed that you really had to get back into the store and continue working.

* * *

It was early evening when your mother dismissed you, the reason for it being the employee arriving. You’d met Sicheng a couple times, but seeing as you only came by to fill in for him, it was rare that the two of you were there at the same time.

“Are you coming from class, Sicheng?” You asked him as you leaned against the counter, waiting for your parents to finish something up in the back to give them your goodbye.

“Yes. Thank you for covering for me, Y/N.”

“Don’t thank me, I’ve been doing this since I could reach the register.”

He nodded, recounting the change in the register almost nervously. Sicheng never really met your gaze whenever you spoke, and you figured he was just a bit shy. There was a small frown on his admittedly pretty face as he counted it once more.

“Something wrong, Sicheng?”

“Yeah, the receipts from today don’t match the cash in the register.”

“Oh, yeah. When I made the delivery to Lenticular Café down the street, the owner just told me to keep the change. I didn’t know what else to do, so I just put it in the register.”

“Got it, thank you.”

Before your conversation could continue, your parents emerged from the back to send you off with a peck on the cheek and promise of having a family dinner sometime this week.

* * *

As soon as you unlocked your apartment door later, you knew that you’d be in trouble. Whenever you saw your fox friend, you knew that you’d come home smelling like it. Not to you, but at least to Tama. Your cat could definitely smell the scent of another animal on you, and tonight was no different.

Immediately, a very jealous Tama had descended upon you, angrily vocalizing up at you. His deep _mrows_ betrayed his distress at his earlier scenting of you being overridden, and you knew he would be practically glued to you for the rest of the night. He didn’t like being carried typically, so you never forcibly picked him up. But today, as you leaned down to take your shoes off, he inserted himself into your arms, setting to work on ‘fixing’ your scent.

You kept him cradled in your arms as you walked through your apartment. “So jealous, Tama,” you clicked your tongue in fake disappointment. “I know, I know, I smell like the fox. I’ve betrayed you, I’m sorry. Maybe I should bring you sometime so you can meet him. He seems pretty friendly to me, I think you’d be safe.”

Tama hissed in response, and you chuckled, “Alright, maybe it’s not _your_ safety I’d have to worry about.”

You dropped him down onto your bed, quickly changing into your pajamas before heading into your bathroom. Despite how friendly the fox was, it still lived outside, so you were always careful to wash your hands thoroughly afterwards.

Reclined on your couch with Tama in your lap, you scrolled through your options on your TV, “What are we thinking for tonight, Tama?”

He let out a kitten-like, soft meow when you’d stopped over one option, and you took that as his answer.

“Good choice, love,” you said approvingly as you played it, setting the remote aside to pet your cat absentmindedly.

* * *

As you victoriously left your final class for the week, you felt your phone buzz in your pocket.

[jaems: are you out of class yet?]

You were the only one of your friends to have a Friday class, and it was an afternoon class too, upsetting your best friend a bit more than you. According to him, the class _ruined_ his ability to make _any_ plans with you. He was a bit dramatic sometimes.

[you: yeah, just finished]

Immediately, your screen was filled by an incoming call from your friend, which you picked up without hesitation.

“Miss me that much, NaNa?” You snickered as you hurried down the stairs.

“Every second of my life,” he shot back.

“Anyway, are you still up for going to that café I was telling you about?”

“Yeah, do you want to meet at your apartment then go?”

“Meeting at my parents’ shop would be easier.”

“But then I wouldn’t get to see Tama!” Jaemin was practically whining, to which you rolled your eyes fondly.

“He _actually_ hates you. You know that, right?”

“He loves me!”

“Jaemin, he’s constantly running away from you. I refuse to let you torture my cat today.”

Before he could make some kind of reply, you heard an ‘oof,’ then a distinguishable crash and yelping and shouting on the line.

While trying to suppress your chuckles, you coughed out, “You good?”

There was more groaning and voices from the other end, mostly muffled. You could just make out your best friend cursing, “Why the hell would you take a nap in our fucking hallway? Were you _trying_ to kill me?”

“It’s not my fault you weren’t looking where you were going,” a voice mumbled in response, which you realized as Jaemin’s perpetually sleepy roommate.

“NaNa!” You yelled into your phone, hoping they could hear you.

“Y/N?” His voice came through your own speakers.

A few laughs burst through your attempts to speak as you imagined Jaemin comedically tripping over a napping Jeno.

“Meet me at my parents shop. And you can bring Jeno too, if he wants.”

“Thanks, I will. I don’t think he’s left our apartment since his lab on Wednesday,” Jaemin admitted, and that was when you could hear a few soft blows landing on a body. “Get up! Jeno! Lee Jeno! Wake up! You’re getting a late lunch with Y/N and I!”

You couldn’t believe that Jeno had already fallen back asleep in those few seconds. That boy must have narcolepsy or something.

“We’ll be there, Y/N!” Your friend cheerily reassured you.

“Okay, see you in a bit.”

“Bye!”

He immediately hung up, and you were left to chuckle, shaking your head at their typical antics.

* * *

Bell Street was a lot more crowded than it was Monday, probably with it being the end of the work week and school week. Children eagerly pulled their parents down the sidewalks, and people still in their professional clothes window shopped after having just gotten out of their offices.

You pushed the teal painted door to the bookstore open, ringing the little bell above it. The boy attending to the counter snapped his head up to look at you. Sicheng seemed slightly surprised to see you, having clearly been expecting a patron.

“Hey, Sicheng!” You greeted him brightly, habitually gracing your eyes and fingers over the books packed along the shelves.

“Your parents aren’t in right now, they take off early on Fridays,” he informed you, anxiously rubbing at the back of his neck.

“I know, I’m getting food with a couple friends and told them to meet me here.”

“Ah, okay.”

“When do you get off?”

“The shop doesn’t close for another two hours.”

You shrugged your shoulders in disappointment at this revelation, changing course to still stay nearby the front desk, “That’s unfortunate. I was going to invite you to tag along with us.”

Sicheng was silent, and you glanced over your shoulder to look at him again. His eyes were glued to the receipts as he carefully straightened out the already neat stack. When he felt you looking at him, his gaze snapped to you, like a deer in headlights.

Before you could pursue this conversation any further, a familiar bell ringing drew your attention to the door. It was none other than the two boys you were expecting.

Jaemin wasted no time in giving you a big hug, and Sicheng immediately looked away again, back to his pristine stack of receipts.

“I swear, every time you see me you act like it’s been a lifetime,” you scoffed as you hugged him back.

“That’s what it feels like!” He insisted, earning a snort from the boy still at the doorway.

“His emotional dependency startles me too,” Jeno shook his head as the other boy released you.

You were about to greet him, when he spoke again with a yawn and stretching of his neck as he rubbed at the back of it, “Let’s get this over with, my nap was interrupted.”

“You’re as pleasant as ever, Jeno,” you were unfazed by his demeanor.

People were typically cranky and grumpy when they were tired, and considering Jeno was _always_ tired, he was _always_ cranky and grumpy as well. You’d gotten used to it over your scarce interactions with him.

He grumbled, giving no words to further the conversation.

“Alright, let’s get going, then,” you started towards the door, giving Sicheng a small wave. “Bye, Sicheng! Have a good night.”

“Thanks, you too,” he mumbled, refusing to meet your eyes again.

* * *

Passing through the vaguely familiar door Jaemin was holding open for you, you were happy to see that there were a couple other customers aside from you in Lenticular Café this time.

Renjun was at the host’s stand, his face pretty much as disgruntled as before when he recognized you, “Oh, it’s you.”

“Hello, Renjun,” you were polite to him nonetheless.

“And you brought friends, _great_.”

The words were laced with clear sarcasm, him muttering the last word to himself as he stepped out from behind the stand.

“I’ll show you to your table,” Renjun turned squarely on his heel before leading the way further into the small café. He stopped in front of a booth, gesturing with no flair or enthusiasm for you to sit. Jaemin scooted in beside you, leaving Jeno on the other side of the table.

“Any food allergies?” The waiter asked the three of you.

After you all gave your answers, he gave you a short nod before getting ready to take his leave.

“Wait, are we going to get any menus?” Jaemin called out to the boy, voicing your own confusion.

A somewhat startling smirk crossed Renjun’s face as he stopped to explain, “You don’t get to choose what you eat. The old man makes whatever he wants, and you eat it.”

“But what if we don’t have enough money for it? Or don’t like it?”

“It’s a flat rate for our food, five bucks a plate.”

Apparently, he didn’t care to explain further, disappearing behind the purple curtain. You exchanged a bewildered look with Jaemin. Jeno was already nodding off as he rested his cheek in his palm.

Less than fifteen minutes after you’d ‘ordered’ your food, Renjun was returning to your table, four plates in hand and three glasses of water.

“Old man’s always preaching about staying hydrated,” he offered some kind of reluctant and annoyed explanation as he set the waters down.

The food that had been given to you all looked rather delicious, and the three of you immediately started digging in. Each of you had your own unique entrée, while the fourth plate contained what looked to be an appetizer for sharing. It was all pretty good, and you were pleasantly surprised that it hit the spot without you having any input as to what the dish would be.

You were taking a sip of your water as Jaemin lamented his most recent quiz grade in his Chemistry class. A movement across the room caught your attention for a moment, and you saw a tall figure emerging from behind the purple curtain.

Johnny’s features immediately melted into a smile when you’d made eye contact, walking over to your table.

“Well hello, little lady,” he greeted you as he stood at the end of your table. “I’m glad you came. And you even brought friends, too!”

“I said I’d come back,” you replied, returning his smile. “This is Jaemin and Jeno.”

“Why does everyone here think I’m your friend?” Jeno’s scowl was broken by a yawn.

“Don’t be so rude to the little lady,” Johnny addressed him with a slight frown, only half-heartedly joking.

You looked to Jaemin for an explanation of the familiarity the two seemed to have with each other, but your friend wasn’t looking in your direction, leaning forward to flick his roommate’s forehead.

Jeno grunted at the stinging impact, and Johnny quickly relaxed back into his easy-going manner as the tension dispersed.

“The food is really good, thank you,” you complimented the chef.

Johnny rubbed at the back of his neck almost sheepishly, except he was clearly happy about the praise, “I’m glad you think my cooking is good, miss.”

“How’d you know what we wanted?” Jaemin questioned, and you nodded in agreement.

“Chef’s secret.”

Your conversation with Johnny was interrupted by gruff yells from another corner of the café. The other patrons who had been in here when you three arrived were now standing, towering over the stubborn Renjun whom they were facing off against.

“You’ve had your food, now leave!” The boy insisted, holding his ground against the rather intimidating men.

They were definitely twice his height, and probably three times his weight. In addition to clearly being pissed off. Did this boy have a death wish?

“No, I don’t think we will,” the one closest to Renjun declared.

“We’ve tolerated you for long enough,” he gritted his teeth, getting more worked up by the second, but with no fear in his gaze. “You’re infecting our air with your poisonous energy.”

Well _that_ wasn’t the kind of insult you heard tossed around frequently.

The two thugs chuckled deeply, exchanging deep smirks that told only of malicious intent as they stepped closer to Renjun.

“You’ve _tolerated_ us? I’d like to see you try to force us out, Satori.”

This was getting serious. You whipped your head around, utterly confused as to why it seemed that nobody was coming to Renjun’s aide.

“Johnny!” You hissed at the man. “Are you going to do something?”

“What? Should I?” He replied with a rather dismissive chuckle, continuing to watch the scene unfold before him.

You pulled out your phone, intending to call the police.

“No service? What the fuck?” You cursed out when you saw the lack of bars. Turning to Jaemin, you fumbled around in his jacket pocket for his phone. Also no service.

Jeno was somehow still on the verge of falling asleep.

Jaemin suddenly snapped into action, taking his phone back from you, “Let’s go outside and try to call, okay?”

He’d just grabbed your hand and started maneuvering out of the booth when a loud crash sounded. One of the thugs had thrown a plate at Renjun. The boy must have avoided it, seeming unscathed.

You flinched, letting go of your friend’s hand to instinctually shield your face. A large hand rested on your shoulder, one that you knew wasn’t Jaemin’s.

“I’ve got the little lady,” Johnny was presumably reassuring your best friend.

After a moment, you heard his sneakers squeak against the tile, having made up his mind. You brought your hands down from your face to look around, but you couldn’t see much. Johnny was in front of you, essentially blocking your entire view of the situation, also acting as a human meat shield for you.

And yet he still didn’t try to intervene, even as his plates and cups were shattered against the walls.

You peered around Johnny’s torso, trying to see what was happening. Renjun’s cheeks were red with anger as he was still trying to get these bothersome patrons to leave. Except they weren’t exactly patrons anymore.

What you saw before you couldn’t possibly be real. You blinked and rubbed your eyes to desperately clear the horrible visages from your vision. A stress-induced hallucination, or your fear was playing tricks on you. Where the two thugs had been now held two shapeless entities of black mist. And instead of normal human eyes, they had two glowing red circles, the true cause for the wash of color over Renjun’s face.

“What the fuck…” You whispered in disbelief, unable to look away.

“Hey,” Johnny turned to you with that same frown of concern from before. “Don’t look, little lady.”

“What the fuck are those things?” You practically yelped at the sound of another crash.

One of the forms had lunged towards Renjun, and he jumped over a table to avoid it, knocking over some plates and glasses in the process.

“Ugh, are they still going?” Jeno grumbled, seemingly bored by the spectacle.

His hand flicked nonchalantly in their direction, a table suddenly taking flight after it, hurtling right at the figures. To your surprise, it actually struck them, thrusting them against the wall. A puff of black mist around the edges of the table was the last you saw of them. When the table fell to the ground with a crack, they were gone.

“I was handling it, Tengu,” Renjun scowled over at your table, fiery eyes focused in on Jeno, no sign of relief or gratitude in his tone. Wait, were Renjun’s eyes always two different colors?

When you looked back to Jeno was when you knew that you were officially fucking tripping. A set of black wings had emerged from his back, lazily folded up behind his shoulder blades.

“What the fuck?” You asked once again. It was apparently the only thought you could form in that moment.

“Oh,” Jeno was just as unenthused as he acknowledged your presence once again. And then the wings were gone. “Uh, you saw nothing?”

“Oh no, no, you’re not getting away with it that easy, Jeno,” Johnny scolded the boy, his warm hand once again rubbing soothingly along your back. “Don’t try to gaslight the little lady.”

“I don’t want to give her all the exposition, ‘m tired,” he punctuated his declaration with yet another yawn.

The front door suddenly burst open, and you’d practically forgotten about Jaemin in everything that’d just happened. But it wasn’t Jaemin. While he _was_ there, he wasn’t the one who’d thrown the door open with such force. It was Sicheng, looking around wildly before his eyes landed on you.

“Sicheng?” You questioned, feeling damn near delirious at this point as you swore that his eyes had fucking changed colors. As soon as you’d recognized the deep blue of his irises, they’d faded back to brown, and you were left wondering if you’d seen them correctly.

“I still couldn’t get reception outside, so I went to try to use the landline in your parents’ shop,” Jaemin explained, panting heavily as though he’d run up and down the street. “When I told Sicheng what was happening, he insisted that we had to come here ourselves. But it looks like they’re gone?”

Johnny smoothly explained, “Yes, they finally came to see reason, and peacefully left the café.”

Jaemin took a bewildered look around the wrecked restaurant, “ _Peacefully?_ ”

You were in no state to even try to explain what had just happened, and it seemed that the only other two witnesses were content to go along with Johnny’s story.

Your friend pushed the issue no further, instead rushing to the table you were still tucked into, “Y/N, are you hurt?”

“I’m fine, thanks for asking,” Jeno grumbled lowly.

Johnny was still rubbing your back and stepped away from your side to allow your friend to sit in the booth beside you again, maneuvering you around to do a fervent once-over for injuries.

“I’m fine, NaNa,” you reassured him, throwing on a weak smile. This was ridiculous, you weren’t even the one who was attacked. “Renjun, are you good?”

Renjun seemed surprised that you’d even ask that, eyebrows shooting up and his hand moving to nervously rub at the back of his neck as he stammered out a response, “Uh, yeah, I’m okay. They had really bad aim.”

“Well, looks like the café is closing a little early tonight!” Johnny proclaimed, his cheery smile returning.

“Here, I’ll take you home, Y/N,” Jaemin guided you out of the booth with an arm around your shoulders.

“Don’t you have work?” You reminded him, but with your gaze locked on Jeno. This boy owed you some kind of damn explanation. The other three did as well, but what he’d done was the most unbelievable to you.

“This is a little more important—”

“I’ve got her, Jaemin,” Jeno spoke up, clearly not enthused by his own offering as he stood up. “I’ll take her back to her apartment, you’ve got to get to work, dude.”

Jaemin seemed conflicted, “Are you sure? Y/N, I think my boss will understand if I take tonight off.”

“I’ll be fine, NaNa. You trust Jeno, don’t you?”

“With anything but staying awake.”

At the teasing entering his tone once again, you knew that he’d relented. Focusing back on his roommate, your friend said, “Thank you, Jeno.”

He muttered something about it not being a problem—which you were sure he considered it to be—then waved his friend off. Thankfully, Jaemin wasn’t thrown into the wall, and was free to walk out with a final worried squeeze of your hands.

As he left, you realized that Sicheng had disappeared from his place at the doorway. He was nowhere in sight, but that was a mystery for another day.

“I’d offer for you to stay and get your explanation, little lady, but Renjun and I have quite a lot of cleaning to do,” Johnny informed you regretfully.

“That’s alright, I really do have to be getting home, I need to feed my cat,” you reassured him before turning on Jeno, jabbing an accusing finger at him. “ _You_ are still taking me home, because _you_ owe me a fucking explanation for those fucking wings.”

Jeno easily gave in, but still added, “I’m not going to hold your hand like Jaemin.”

“I think I’d break yours if you tried.”

“Stay safe, you two!” Johnny sent you off with a wave as he started picking up a few larger pieces of the broken table.

* * *

With a click, you unlocked your apartment door, flicking the lights on as you entered. Jeno followed in behind you as you made a beeline for the kitchen.

“Tama!” You called out into your home for your pet. “I’m home! I know you’re hungry bud, come on!”

Suspiciously, Tama slinked into the kitchen, eyeing Jeno with narrowed eyes.

The boy with you returned the look, and you looked between the two with concern. Jeno was seriously having a staring contest with your cat.

Deciding not to comment on it, you set Tama’s food bowl down, distracting him.

“Hey, love, I missed you,” you said as he took a short detour to get pet by you.

Once you’d stood up, he continued his journey to his food, and you motioned for Jeno to sit in your adjoined living room. He plopped down in the corner of your couch, and you sat yourself right in front of him on your coffee table. You laced your fingers together, looking to him expectantly as you leaned your elbows forward on your knees.

“God, this is going to be a long story,” Jeno sighed, rubbing his face in exasperation. “Don’t ask any questions while I’m talking, it’ll just take even longer.”

“Okay,” you nodded, agreeing to these terms.

Tama had finished his food as quick as ever and took his place in your arms as Jeno tried to piece together his thoughts.

“Alright, I guess I’ll start with me? Uh, I’m a Tengu, a winged supernatural being of sorts. The collective term for supernatural beings like me is Ayakashi. Renjun, Johnny, and that other dude, uh that came in with Jaemin, are Ayakashi too. Those things in the café today were Wraiths, evil spirits. They typically just possess people, but today it seemed they’ve figured out how to make their own human forms, which means they’re getting stronger, not needing a human host to move amongst people.”

It seemed as though he’d found a stopping point, and you felt like it was the right time to ask your questions, “So did you… kill the Wraiths? With the table?”

“No, I can’t kill Wraiths unless they’re in a human host. I just fucked them up enough to disperse their energies for a bit.”

“Were they the reason my phone wasn’t working?”

“Probably.”

“So you already knew Renjun, Johnny, and Sicheng before today?”

“Nope, never seen them in my life until today.”

“Then how’d you know they were Ayakashi too?”

“It’s just a feeling, I can sense it when other Ayakashi are around,” Jeno’s gaze was fixated on the white cat perched in your lap, who was currently enjoying ear scratches.

“You said Tengu is just a kind of Ayakashi. Do you know what kind the others are?”

“Nope.”

“The Wraith called Renjun, uhm ‘Satori.’ Is that an Ayakashi?”

“Satoris are seers, they can like read people’s minds and stuff.”

“Does he not have powers like yours, then? The Wraith called him that like it made him weak or something.”

“Yeah, if Renjun’s a Satori, he’s no different than a human aside from the mind-reading. Just as weak and pitiful as you.”

Jeno’s biting remark went in one ear and out the other as you desperately tried to process the information that you’d just gotten in a very short time span.

“Jaemin isn’t…”

“No,” he scowled, as if that was the most ridiculous thing you could suggest. “Jaemin’s a human just like you. But he doesn’t know anything about Tengu or Ayakashi, and you can’t tell him. The more people know, the bigger a headache it is for me.”

“Well then you’re lucky he wasn’t in the café for most of the fight.”

“Johnny did that on purpose, it was no luck.”

“Why?”

“You’d have to ask him,” Jeno shrugged and yawned, and you had a feeling that he was nearing the end of his usefulness to your unending stream of questions.

But you were still in slight disbelief, “Can I see your wings one more time? Just to prove to myself that I’m not crazy?”

The boy rolled his eyes, but nonetheless, two black wings sprouted from his back. Tama seemed unfazed by the sudden eruption of wings, continuing to observe your guest as closely as he’d observe you. Your hand lifted as if to touch the wings, but for some reason that felt too… invasive, so you retracted your hand and looked only with your eyes.

After a moment, you said, “Okay, thank you.”

Then the wings were gone, and Jeno looked like a normal human being again. He readjusted his baseball cap as he stood up, and you set Tama down to follow him to the door. Jeno offered no further words as he disappeared down the building hallway, and you were left with your thoughts and your pet.

The ringing of your phone caught your attention, and you went back to your coffee table to pick it up. It was Jaemin calling, and you accepted the call.

“Y/N? Hey, are you good?” He asked, concern apparent in his tone.

“Yeah, Jaemin, I’m okay,” you tried to quell his worries. “Jeno just dropped me off, and Tama’s been fed.”

“He left you already?” Jaemin’s anger bled into his voice as it came through your speakers.

“Jaemin, your concern is really sweet, but I’m not traumatized or anything, there was no reason for him to stay. I’m fine, I promise.”

He paused for a moment before saying, “Alright, alright. Get to sleep early tonight, okay?”

“I will. When does your break end?”

“Right now, actually. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Bye, NaNa.”

“Bye, Y/N.”

With that, you hung up and fell onto your couch. You had a lot to think about tonight.

Tama slid himself between your arms, and you habitually stroked his white fur, a deep sigh coming from within you.

“Oh, Tama, the day I just had…”


	2. [two]

Less than a week later, and you were stepping onto Bell Street with purpose in your gait. Today you were getting answers. Jeno was only so useful, you had a million more things to figure out, and you knew exactly who was going to help you. Whether they like it or not.

Lenticular Café was quickly becoming familiar to you, your eyes immediately landing on where you knew Renjun would be. They just opened, and you did that on purpose. Their only customers that you’d seen so far were you and Wraiths, so you figured it’d be safe for you to come with your questions then.

Just like you figured, it was empty—save for Renjun. Surprisingly, he didn’t greet you with some kind of bitter comment, probably picking up on the ‘no bullshit’ look on your face.

“You’ve got time to talk.”

It was supposed to be a question, but with absolutely no inflection in your tone, it was more clearly a statement.

Renjun wordlessly led the way to a booth in the far back corner from the entrance, taking the seat across from you. He looked to you expectantly, and you opened up your phone. Your notes app immediately popped up, and he finally made a sound.

It was a sharp laugh, followed by, “You made a list of questions to ask me?”

You simply focused your intense gaze back on him in response. He went quiet again.

“You’re a Satori seer.”

Renjun nodded.

“So you can read people’s minds?”

“Yeah. But not whenever I want, I have to be in physical contact with them.”

“How did the Wraiths know what you were? Jeno said he couldn’t tell what kind of Ayakashi you were.”

“It was probably this,” Renjun blinked, and when his eyes opened back up, one was a startling jade color. “Unfortunately, my true form pops out a little bit when I’m pissed off.”

Then he blinked again, and both were his typical deep brown once more.

Despite your momentary surprise, you had a new question, “Is Sicheng a Satori then, too? His eyes were a different color that day.”

“Were both of his eyes one color?”

“Yeah, they were blue.”

“He’s not a Satori. He’s some kind of Ayakashi, but not a Satori,” Renjun informed you, squashing your line of questioning. “It’s the heterochromia that gives it away.”

You easily switched trains of thought, “Did you know the men were Wraiths when they came into the restaurant?”

“Yes.”

“Why did you let them stay, then?”

“We can’t go around picking fights whenever we sense Wraiths, and they’ve acknowledged that as well, so it’s become rather commonplace for us to tolerate each other’s presences when around regular humans.”

You scrolled down your phone to your next question, the one that had been bothering you the most, “Do you know why Johnny got Jaemin out but not me?”

“I do,” he rolled his eyes, his impudence returning to his demeanor. “But it’s better you hear it from him.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t agree with him.”

Feeling that the conversation was over, you stood, giving him a short nod, “Thank you, Renjun.”

He didn’t return the sentiment, simply holding your gaze for a moment before starting back towards the host’s stand.

Renjun’s words gave you the sense that it was okay to do what you were about to do. You went to the back, gingerly parting the purple curtain. When he didn’t immediately go off on you, you slipped through it.

You’d never been anywhere but the dining area and now found yourself at the beginning of a short hallway. There was the bottom of a flight of stairs, one closed door at the end, and another doorway on your right open to let a sweet smell float out.

Stepping into the open doorway, you were in the kitchen. It was small, one oven and stove, refrigerator, and a few other appliances. Simple, but one could make most anything in here with enough skill. Johnny wasn’t actively cooking, instead leaning against the island in the middle of the room.

He caught your eyes, warm smile returning as he gestured to the stool caddy-corner to him, “Sit, little lady.”

As soon as you had sat down, he moved to the oven, pulling out a baking sheet from within. There were a dozen cookies on the tray, and he set them aside for a moment to return to you.

“You like chocolate chip?”

“Sure,” you agreed, the wonderful smell now hitting your nostrils with greater strength than from out in the hallway.

“They’ll be ready to eat in a couple minutes. Nice and warm right from the oven.”

You once again went to the notes app on your phone, and this time weren’t made fun of for it. Johnny was standing quietly, patiently waiting for you to speak again.

“The café looks a lot better.”

“Thanks. And sorry about your meal being disturbed. The Wraiths usually pay and leave without making a scene like that, but I have a feeling Renjun agitated them a bit.”

“Oh, we didn’t even get to pay you!” You went to reach into your backpack for your wallet, but once again Johnny waved you off.

“Don’t worry about it, I’m just glad you’re safe.”

“Renjun’s right, you’re going to go bankrupt at this rate,” you scoffed, but didn’t have enough in you to fight him on it. Instead, he’d set up the perfect segue for your most pressing question, “Speaking of my safety: why did you get Jaemin out of the restaurant but not me that day? He was going to take me with him, but you stopped him. Why?”

“I figured you’d be asking me that, you’re a bright little lady,” Johnny commented, and when you offered no reply, he continued. “How much did Jeno and Renjun explain to you?”

“Jeno told me the basics about Ayakashi and Wraiths; said that him, you, Renjun, and Sicheng were Ayakashi, but he couldn’t tell me exactly what kind. Renjun confirmed that he’s a Satori, and when I asked him the same question I just asked you, he told me to talk to you. So now I’m talking to you.”

“Jeno must have mentioned being able to sense other Ayakashi’s presence, right?”

Not liking where this seemed to be going, you hesitantly answered, “Yes. But I’m _not_ an Ayakashi, there’s no way you’re about to say that.”

“No, you’re not an Ayakashi,” he assured you with an amused chuckle. “But you’re not an ordinary human either.”

“What am I, then?” You asked, not entirely believing him. You’d already opened your mind to accept Ayakashi existing, you weren’t sure how much wider it could go to accept whatever he was about to tell you.

“An Onmyoji,” Johnny told you very nonchalantly, returning to the baking tray and placing the cookies on a plate.

He set the plate in front of you, and they looked absolutely mouthwatering. But you couldn’t get distracted now.

“And what is that?”

“A Diviner, kind of like a wizard, I guess? That’s the best comparison I can make right now.”

“What makes you think that I’m one of those?”

“Ayakashi can sense other supernatural beings, like other Ayakashi, Wraiths, and Onmyoji.”

“Jeno said he had no clue why you kept me back. Wouldn’t he have told me then that he could sense me being an Onmyoji?” You argued.

“Jeno’s a young Ayakashi, and so is Renjun, they’re not as in tune to uh, ‘supernatural radio.’ Not to mention that your powers haven’t awakened yet, so it’d be nearly impossible for them to sense it.”

You circled back to the original question, not liking how much Johnny was dancing around it, “But _why did you keep me back_? I feel like there were safer options to tell me about all this stuff.”

“I knew it’d be more believable if you saw the Wraiths yourself rather than some random dude spouting all this shit at you. Jeno using his own powers and bringing his wings out helped, too, but I didn’t exactly plan on that.”

“But you told me not to look.”

“I tried a bit of reverse psychology, to mixed results.”

Finally, you grabbed a cookie and sighed, “Alright…” before taking a big bite into it. It tasted even better than it smelled, and you nearly groaned at the warm chocolate melting over your tongue.

“And,” Johnny sheepishly rubbed at the back of his neck again. “This reason isn’t going to be as good, but I wanted to see if it would awaken your powers. You know, kind of like a fight or flight response.”

“Oh,” you deadpanned through a mouthful of cookie.

“Sorry.”

“No, it’s fine, it’s fine.”

Your most pressing question had been answered, even if that answer did just bring you more questions. But you couldn’t formulate your doubts or anxieties into comprehensible thoughts, so you kept them to yourself for now. Instead, you went back to your list on your phone.

“So… uh, what kind of Ayakashi are you?”

“Domeki, 100-Eyed Demon.”

That was a new one. Admittedly, every Ayakashi had been a new one to you.

You were still looking up at him when he smirked slightly, “You trying to figure out where my other 98 eyes are?”

“I figure you’re in your human form right now, so they’re not visible.”

“Smart little lady. And they’re not exactly eyes like these two, they kinda look like tattoos of eyes. A bit more stylish.”

You finished off your cookie, “So, you said that Jeno and Renjun are too young to sense my powers, but you could. That means you’re an older Ayakashi, right? That why Renjun calls you old man?”

“Even smarter than I thought.”

“Thanks for answering my questions Johnny.” Standing up from the stool, you grabbed another cookie, “Now, I have one more person on my list to talk to before my class today.”

“You had a list?” He confirmed, probably amused by your thorough planning.

“You, Renjun, Jeno, and Sicheng. Sicheng’s the only one left.”

“Have fun interrogating Sicheng.”

“I don’t think either of us will be having a lot of fun.”

“Take another cookie,” he offered as you started towards the doorway.

You obliged, “Thanks.”

“See you around, miss.”

“See you, Johnny.”

* * *

The teal door swung open as you confidently stepped through, eyes sweeping for the figure of Sicheng. You guessed he would be in the shop at this time; after all, you didn’t know his exact work or class schedule. You didn’t even know his surname, for fuck’s sake, and you only knew he was a student because your mom had mentioned it to you when she first told you about their new hire a couple months ago. He was one of the rare students at your college who didn’t go to your high school as well.

Your mother was at the front desk, surprise turning to joy as she came around the counter to give you a hug, “Hey, sweetheart!”

“Hey, Mom.”

“What are you doing here? Don’t you have class?”

“Not for another hour,” you informed her.

“Cookies for breakfast?” She questioned pointedly, taking note of the remaining cookie in your hand. You’d eaten one on the short walk from Lenticular Café to Bibliophile Books.

Shrugging sheepishly, you couldn’t quite explain where you got them from, and instead diverted the topic, “Is Sicheng around?”

“Yeah, he’s somewhere in here helping a customer. Why?”

Shit, you didn’t have an excuse.

“Uh, we have the same professor for a class, and he wanted to take a look at my notes from lecture the other day.”

“You have a class together?”

“No, just the same subject and the same professor. But different times.”

“Well, you’re welcome to wait up here for him, as long as you don’t get in the way of the customers. I have a few deliveries to make.”

“I won’t, promise. Where’s Dad?”

“He’s at a book trade downtown for the day.”

“Alright, thank you.”

“I’ll talk to you later, Y/N.”

“Bye, Mom.”

You leaned against the counter, drumming your fingers as you waited. Minute hums of voices floated through the air from the very back of the store, the owners hidden by the multitude of bookshelves. The voices started nearing you, and you moved yourself back from the counter, fulfilling your promise of not getting in the way of the customers. You popped the last cookie in your mouth, looking around the shop absentmindedly.

The voices stopped getting closer, still concealed by the furniture, and you were able to clearly hear their conversation now.

“Oh, I thought it would be here. I’m sorry,” Sicheng was apologizing, presumably to the customer. “Our 17th century European literature is all here.”

“That’s alright, I knew a first edition Don Quixote was a tall order,” a man replied.

You promised not to get in the way of customers, but you had to intervene in that moment, sliding around the corner of a bookshelf to where you knew they were, “All of the first editions are on a different shelf, towards the front!”

The three men all whipped their heads around to look at you. Sicheng’s cheeks were already pink from the embarrassment of disappointing a customer, and you were sure you were just making it multiply tenfold. You didn’t want to straight-up humiliate him in front of a customer, but you figured that making a sale as big as this one would make up for it. At least as far as the shop’s concerned.

The shorter of the other two men with Sicheng regarded you with an intrigued smirk, “Lead the way, miss.”

Both of them were wearing rather nice suits, the taller of the two already with a couple books in his hand. The man who’d spoken to you fell into step beside you as you led the way through the winding bookshelves. His companion followed behind you two. With the group being quiet, you could hear your breathing clearly as you felt the man’s eyes on you the whole time.

You stopped at a particular shelf towards the front of the store, holding less than a dozen books, “It’s not a very wide selection, but here are all the first editions in the store right now.”

He nodded to you, eyes moving to read the spines of the old books.

Nervously, you scanned them as well. It wasn’t there.

“Well, thank you anyway…?”

The way he trailed off prompted you to offer up your name, “Y/N.”

“Thank you, Y/N. And you too, Sicheng.”

Sicheng was at the very end of the aisle, even further behind than the man’s companion.

Unable to help yourself, you blurted out, “One of the owners is at a book trade today, I can ask him to keep an eye out for a first edition Don Quixote for you.”

The man with you broke into a smile, one that made your heart skip just a bit, “That would be fantastic. Thank you so much.”

“Of course.”

“If you’re finished shopping for today, Mr. Qian, I can ring you up at the front,” Sicheng spoke up, cutting your chest-throbbing eye contact with the man short.

He agreed, and your small group found their way back out to where the front desk was. You made a move to separate yourself from the situation and let Sicheng finish his sale, stepping over to wait patiently by the closed door to your parents’ office behind the counter. Bringing out your phone, you texted your father with the customer’s request.

[you: a customer today was looking for a first edition Don Quixote, anything like that at the book trade so far?]

But ‘Mr. Qian’ kept you engaged in conversation, “Do you work here as well, Y/N?”

“Oh, not really,” you shook your head. “My parents are the owners, I kind of grew up in this place.”

“So you must know it like the back of your hand.”

“For the most part,” you really didn’t want to continue this line of conversation, for Sicheng’s sake. “Uh, do you collect books?”

“I have a small library of rare books, yes.”

With that, your phone buzzed.

[dad: There’s a dealer in Spanish classics here, I’ll check out what he has. Get the customer’s information so I can call him if I find it.]

[you: will do]

Looking back up from your phone, you said, “That was him. He requested we take down your contact information to let you know if we acquire the book.”

“Doyoung?” He prompted the man beside him.

‘Doyoung’ reached into the inside of his suit jacket, retrieving a small card from within. As he went to hold it out to Sicheng, ‘Mr. Qian’ snatched it from his delicate fingers. He picked up a pen from the counter, flipping the card over to write something on the blank side. After clicking the pen closed, he didn’t offer it out to Sicheng, but to you.

Rather confused, you accepted it. It was an elegantly minimalistic business card:

**Kim Doyoung**

**Head Assistant to VP Qian**

**Oni Group Holdings**

**xxx-343-xxxx**

On the other side, in a neat scrawl, was another set of information:

_xxx-222-xxxx_

_Kun_

As you were reading both sides, he informed you nonchalantly, “The store can call my assistant if the book is acquired. _You_ can call _me_ if you need anything.”

Absolutely dumbfounded, you found yourself only able to nod slightly.

Sicheng quickly rang up Kun’s purchase, and soon the two men had departed the shop.

Finally able to pull yourself out of your trance, you set the card down on the counter, profusely apologizing to the man left with you, “I am so, so sorry Sicheng. I didn’t mean to embarrass you in front of a customer or overstep my place or anything. I wasn’t thinking when I interrupted, and I should’ve just—”

“Do you _know_ who’s number you just got?” He cut you off, voice only an intense whisper.

Reading off the card, you said, “Kun, the Vice President of Oni Group Holdings? Is he a big deal?”

Sicheng shook his head, “Never mind. I forgive you.”

He harshly ripped a sticky note off the top of the pad, copying over the information of Kim Doyoung before sticking it to the reminders board on the desk with a resounding thud.

“So why are you even here? I could hear you telling Mrs. Y/L/N that you were bringing me notes? We’re completely different majors, we don’t share any of the same classes or professors.”

A few things caught you off-guard. That was the most Sicheng had ever said to you in one go, his tone was sharp and sounded a bit ticked off, he was making direct eye contact with you, and:

“How do you know my major?”

“I work for your parents, remember? You’re their pride and joy, their favorite subject to talk about. I know way more about you than I should.”

“Oh.”

“So? Why are you here?”

With a deep breath, you refocused yourself back to your original task, “About what happened at Lenticular Café the other day…”

“What about it?” He brushed your statement off, refusing to meet your eyes again. “I heard there were a couple belligerent customers, but they left.”

“I know about Ayakashi, Sicheng.”

“About what?”

This wasn’t going to be easy.

Right before you could go off on him, he glanced at the clock on the wall, drawing your own eyes there, “What time does your class start?”

“Shit!” You didn’t have enough time to interrogate Sicheng, you had to leave _right now_ to be on time for your class. “This isn’t over, Sicheng.”

With that final warning, you snatched the business card up and darted out of the store.

* * *

Bell Street had always been familiar to you, but this was getting ridiculous. You were there once again, only a couple days after your last visit, having been requested there by an unknown number claiming to be Jeno, saying he got your number off Jaemin’s phone while he was in the shower. Jeno had neglected to tell you exactly why he wanted you to go to Lenticular Café that day, but you were there.

It was later at night, and the closed sign was flipped around at the door. The café didn’t get many patrons anyway, but it must be rather serious for them to intentionally clear the whole store out. You’d barely opened the still unlocked door when three familiar figures were crowding you, immediately herding you back outside. Renjun was locking the door behind you four as Johnny slung his arm around your shoulders to start half-pulling you down the sidewalks. It was in the opposite direction of your parents’ shop, an end of the street you weren’t terribly familiar with.

“Well hello to you too,” you scoffed at the treatment, trying to look over your shoulder to see if Renjun was caught up with you yet.

Johnny tightened his grip on you a little bit, forcing your eyes forward again, “Don’t look.”

“What the hell’s going on?” You hissed.

Jeno was on your other side, walking practically shoulder-to-shoulder with you in the nearly empty sidewalks. A pair of footsteps was behind you, and you figured that was Renjun.

“You remember those Wraiths I fucked up?” Jeno whispered.

“Yeah?”

“They’re back, and they remember us.”

“Then why the fuck would you drag me out of the safety of my apartment to where you three knuckleheads _and_ the Wraiths are?”

When nobody had answered your question, you glared at Johnny, “I swear to God if you brought me out here to try to get my powers to awaken again I will—”

“This wasn’t the plan!” He cut off your threat. “I wanted to talk to you guys about something else, but then this happened. I did not purposefully endanger you this time.”

“Alright,” you accepted his words. “So what are we doing, exactly?”

Johnny suddenly stopped in front of a store, pointing at a mannequin with an oddly cheerful tone, “That would look so pretty on you!”

You looked at him with incredulous, wide eyes. What the hell was he doing?

Then the four of you were on the move again, and Renjun murmured behind you, “Trying to blend in.”

“Can’t they sense that you’re Ayakashi? What’s the point of hiding?”

“They’ve just reformed, they’re a little weaker right now, meaning they can’t sense as well,” Johnny explained, taking a seemingly random turn down the streets. “We can probably slip away from them safely if we’re careful.”

“Got it.”

And so the four of you hurried down the sidewalks, winding your way further and further away from the shop and into more heavily populated areas. You were starting to get dizzy trying to remember every twist and turn you took. Eventually, you gave up. You’d have to pull out Google Maps to get back home at this point.

Speaking of, it was getting late. You’d fed Tama before you’d come out to Bell Street, but you still had homework to do tonight as well.

“Hey, uhm, when can I go home? I’ve got some homework due tomorrow…”

“Renjun, how are we looking?” Johnny asked the boy behind you.

He did a short visual survey of the area around you, “I think we’re good.”

“Okay, Jeno and I will take you home right now!”

“Why me?” The boy beside you questioned, finishing it off with a yawn.

“Because Renjun is going to finish closing up the restaurant correctly tonight, and two of us should be with Y/N, just in case.”

“Fine, whatever.”

* * *

Outside your apartment building, you briefly looked up to the second floor, a habit of checking to see how many of your neighbors were home. All six windows were lit up. Which wasn’t right. You turned your lights off before you left, but now they were on, and through your closed curtains, you could see a silhouette moving around.

You stopped the two men with you, pointing up at the shadow. “There’s someone in my apartment.”

“Are you sure that’s your window?” Jeno questioned, to which you scowled.

“Yes, I’m sure,” you snapped, bringing your phone out with full intention to call the police.

“Wait, no,” Johnny placed a hand over your phone, pushing it back down. “What if it’s a Wraith?”

“Why would there be a Wraith in my apartment?”

At his insistent look, you tucked your phone away with a grumble, “Great, I can’t even call the police like a normal human anymore.”

* * *

Quietly, the three of you approached your door, not wanting to startle the intruder. You handed your keys to Johnny, who had offered to go in for you. Not to mention that Jeno wanted to do as little as possible.

He carefully unlocked your door and opened it, slipping into your now-dark apartment.

You waited with great anticipation as you listened to everything. Johnny’s quiet footsteps receded, and you figured he was past your kitchen and almost to your bedroom. The click of your bedroom door opening came to your ears, immediately followed by Johnny swearing and a distinct crash. When you looked to Jeno with alarm, he merely shrugged.

Then it went quiet.

“Johnny?” You called out hesitantly, peering in yourself.

“I’m coming,” Johnny replied, sounding perfectly fine.

“Did you find anything?”

Following Jeno in, you continued looking around cautiously.

“Yeah, found your intruder!” He announced loudly as he emerged from your room, carrying Tama by his scruff.

Your cat was not pleased by this treatment, hissing and swatting at Johnny with his claws. Johnny kept Tama at arm’s length, and you could see a couple bloody scratches on his arm already.

“Put him down!” You scolded Johnny, hating to see your cat in such clear distress. “He doesn’t like to be carried!”

“Oh yeah, I’m sure it feels really _dehumanizing_ ,” Jeno snorted, flopping down onto your couch.

“ _What_ , Jeno?”

“God, I can’t wait for your powers to awaken so I don’t have to explain everything to you.”

The older man was still holding your flailing pet, and you rounded back on him with rage, “Johnny! _Put! Tama! Down!_ ”

He immediately and unceremoniously dropped your cat to the floor. Despite Tama safely landing on his paws, you still winced, anger flaring up even more.

“What the _fuck_ are you two on?” You demanded as Tama slinked over to you, seeking out your comfort, which you gladly provided him as you squatted down. You were absolutely bewildered and slighted by their terrible demeanor to Tama.

Johnny didn’t address you, instead looking directly into Tama’s icy blue eyes as he said, “Last chance, _Tama_ , or I’m telling her.”

Tama moved out of your reach, towards an empty area of the floor. Then, in an instant, Tama was gone and in his place was a man with the same white hair and blue eyes as your cat.

“What the hell?” You breathed out, gaze locked on this man.

The man rounded on Johnny, yelling out, “You kept her in a room with a bunch of Wraiths? What’s wrong with you?”

“I think that’s the least of your worries right now, Tama,” Johnny was unfazed by this entire situation, nodding towards you.

“She wasn’t ready for that! She doesn’t have her powers yet! You—”

“Hey!” You barked out, voice raised and stern to get his attention. You needed answers, now.

He turned to you slowly, outrage fading away to sheepishness as he squeaked out, “Uhm, hi.”

“Tama, you’re an Ayakashi too?”

“My name’s not Tama… it’s Taeyong.”

Jeno—who you’d honestly forgotten about—groaned out, “I’m not doing all the exposition again.”

“Shut up and take a nap, Jeno,” you snapped at him, frustration returning.

“Don’t have to tell me twice,” he laid down, making himself comfortable on your couch, almost immediately snoring softly.

Needing to physically stabilize yourself, you leaned back against the arm of your couch to continue the conversation, “Tam— Taeyong. What the fuck?”

Taeyong looked over at Johnny, pleading, to which he snorted and shook his head, “Don’t look at me; not my circus, not my monkey. It’s all you, Taeyong.”

“Alright, yes, I’m Ayakashi. A Nekomata, to be specific.”

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” you groaned with an eye roll, rubbing at your face.

“I just want to help you, Y/N,” Taeyong pleaded with you.

Suddenly, you realized, “You’ve been in the room while I’ve changed!”

“I always looked away, I promise!”

You couldn’t even stay focused on that single issue for long, looking up at the ceiling as you practically wailed, “Why me?”

“Well, you’re the one who adopted me—”

Johnny cut the Nekomata off, “I think that was a rhetorical, general questioning of the Universe and circumstances she’s in, Taeyong.”

“Y/N, I promise I mean no harm,” Taeyong addressed you again, bringing your gaze to his wide, blue eyes. “I really do just want to help. You’re my family, my human, I care about you.”

“Stop acting like I’m going to kick you out on the streets,” you shook your head, taking a deep breath as you came to a determination. “You’re just never going to be in the room when I change ever again. Human or cat form.”

“Thank you!” Taeyong launched himself at you, wrapping his arms around you and rubbing his head against your neck.

“Okay, the scenting isn’t going to really work like this,” you chuckled, patting his back affectionately as he was awkwardly contained in your arms.

“Aw, that’s lovely,” Johnny commented, shaking the sleeping boy awake. “Come on, Jeno, our work here is done.”

“Since when are we a package deal?” Jeno grumbled, but nonetheless sat up.

You rolled your eyes, “Go crash at your own place, Jeno.”

“Fine. Your couch wasn’t really all that comfy anyway.”

You tried to stand to walk your guests out properly, but Taeyong still being attached to you made that difficult. Johnny smiled at you in silent understanding, quietly shutting the door behind the two of them. That left you with your Nekomata.

“Taeyong,” you said his name, gently pushing him off you.

“Yes?” He endearingly looked into your eyes.

“Are you the reason that my Goldfish have been disappearing?”

He dipped his head down to hide his face in your neck in shame, to which you snickered.

“You know those aren’t real fish, right?”

* * *

That Monday, as you went to your kitchen to start making breakfast, you felt a warmth at your ankles.

“Good morning, Taeyong,” you yawned, not even fazed this time when he was suddenly walking beside you in his human form.

“Good morning, Y/N!” He replied cheerily, watching as you pulled a box of cereal from your pantry, then milk from your fridge.

Your daily routine with Taeyong wasn’t much different than your daily routine with Tama had been. He still slept at the foot of your bed in his cat form, you still fed him, and he was just as casually affectionate. A couple things were different, however:

“Are you eating human food or cat food today?”

“Mmm, human food.”

“Alright,” you grabbed two bowls from your cabinet.

Right as you’d poured cereal into Taeyong’s bowl, he tried to be helpful and hand you the milk, but just ended up knocking his elbow into both the bowls, sending cereal flying across your entire kitchen floor.

After the cereal mishap, you still sat on your coffee table to watch the sunrise and Taeyong sat on the floor beside you, head resting against your knee. Between yawns, you shoveled food into your mouth, and your companion eagerly slurped up the leftover milk from his cereal.

“Y/N?”

You made a grunt of acknowledgement through the half-chewed cereal in your mouth.

“Can I go to school with you today?”

You looked down at him with a raised eyebrow, swallowing your food quickly, “Why would you want to do that?”

“I want to make sure you’re safe on your way there.”

“Taeyong, I’ll be fine,” you reassured him, running your fingers through his hair like you’d do if he was a cat. “Besides, it’d be a little difficult explaining this new random guy who lives with me to my friends.”

“What if I was in my cat form, then? At least on your college campus.”

“Jaemin will want to baby you.”

He groaned, probably remembering the numerous times that the well-natured Jaemin had accidentally harassed him. Jaemin just wanted to snuggle your cat, but Taeyong had wanted nothing to do with him.

“You don’t like any of my friends, do you?” You questioned, amusement in your tone.

“They’ve all been terribly unpleasant: Jaemin, Johnny and Jeno from the other night.”

“What about Jaehyun?” You referenced the few times your TA friend has been around.

“He was fine, I guess.”

Your food was quickly finished, and you left Taeyong in the living room as you changed in your bedroom. Reemerging, you glanced at your phone for the time. A text from Jeno was already there.

[jeno: meet us at the café this afternoon]

Rolling your eyes, you responded.

[you: what time?]

[jeno: five]

[you: if we get attacked by wraiths again i will end you]

You pocketed your phone, scanning your apartment for Taeyong. He was back in his cat form, waiting patiently by the door.

“Right, the ritual scenting,” you shook your head, kneeling down to let him climb up your thighs. “Bye, Taeyong. Don’t get into too much trouble while I’m gone.”

“I won’t,” he promised, and you were still slightly caught off-guard by his ability to speak in his cat form.

“Yeah, that’s still a bit weird,” you admitted, scratching behind his ears for a moment. “I’ve got classes today, then I’ll be back for a little bit, then Jeno and the others want to meet up at Lenticular Café again at five, so I’ll be gone again then.”

“I should come with you! To the café. They already know about me! You won’t have anything to explain!”

You contemplated this for a moment before deciding that it wouldn’t be too much harm to bring him out then. Not to mention that you felt bad that you’ve been keeping this humanoid in your apartment day and night for almost a year now.

“Alright, sure,” you agreed before standing back up. “See you!”

Taeyong sent you off with a short meow, and before you could lock the door behind you, the latch had clicked itself.

* * *

“So what are you doing this afternoon, Y/N?” Mark asked as the class started packing up, seeming much more awake than usual.

“Oh, I’ve got one more class, then I’m going home to feed my cat, and meeting some friends for dinner,” you normalized your actually strange schedule for him. “What about you?”

He stood up, shouldering his bag, “My roommate is dragging me to a bar tonight. That man drinks _so much_ , but I’ve never seen him hungover.”

Your interest was piqued. You didn’t know too much about Mark’s life outside the one class you shared; you didn’t even know he had a roommate, “Sounds like you’re roommates with an alcoholic.”

“Ha, just a bit,” he chuckled, holding the door to the room open for you.

You glanced over your shoulder to see if Jaehyun was leaving yet, but he looked to be deep in conversation with your professor. Following Mark outside, you continued inquiring about his roommate.

“So does your roommate go here, too?”

“Yep, but he’s older than us, he’s doing grad research right now, actually.”

“Oh, wow. For what department?”

“Biology. More specifically, entomology.”

“Bugs?”

“Yep.”

At the strange look on your face, your classmate snickered, “I know, he sounds like some weird little nerd. But he drinks like nobody’s business, and I’ve never seen him get rejected by anybody he’s tried to pick up.”

“Guess you can’t judge someone by their occupation, huh.”

“Mhm, Ten’s a prime example of that.”

Before you could ask another question, you were in front of the building where your next class was, “I’ve got to go. I’ll talk to you Wednesday, Mark.”

“Bye, Y/N!” He departed from you with a cheery smile, and you quickly hurried up the steps of the science center.

With the description of Mark’s strange roommate bouncing around in your brain, you paid extra attention to the windows of the entomology department as you passed them by.

* * *

You left your last class an hour later, replying to a text from Jaemin asking to get dinner tonight. Unfortunately, you couldn’t promise him anything, not knowing how long your chat at Lenticular Café would last.

“Hey, Y/N!”

Your head snapped up at this, eyes landing on the familiar figure of Nakamoto Yuta. Changing directions towards him, you greeted him as well, “Hi, Yuta. Why weren’t you in the quad this morning?”

“Slept through my alarm,” he admitted.

“Ah, got it. Do you have a class in here?”

“No, but one of my friends asked me to bring him some food. He’s stuck doing his research right now.”

At the mention of food, your stomach growled, causing your cheeks to flush with how loud it was, “Speaking of lunch, I think my body’s ready for some as well.”

“Me too, I didn’t even get myself anything while I was running the errand for him.”

Realizing that you had never really hung out with Yuta outside campus, you offered, “I’m just planning on making myself some cup ramen in my apartment, but you’re more than welcome to join me if you’d like.”

Yuta brushed at the fur on your shirt again, smiling, “I’d love to, thanks.”

* * *

Outside your apartment door, you held up a hand to stop Yuta. You had to give Taeyong a warning to be in his cat form while your friend was over.

“Can you wait here for a second? My cat Tama doesn’t really like strangers, so I’ve got to—”

“I understand, go ahead.”

“Okay, thanks,” you cracked your door open just enough to slip through.

Taeyong was perched on your couch, already in his cat form. You rushed over to him, but he spoke first, thankfully quietly, “I heard a voice, is someone with you?”

“Yeah, my friend Yuta’s over for lunch,” you confirmed. “So you know, please be a cat.”

He simply _mrow_ -ed in response. Giving him a grateful smile, you moved to open your front door, welcoming Yuta in.

“So, I’ve got two kinds of ramen—”

You’d barely shut the door behind Yuta and started towards the kitchen when you were protectively pulled back by a pair of arms, the owner of them hissing, “You!”

“Hey, pretty kitty!” Yuta grinned in delight over your shoulder at Taeyong, who was suddenly now in his human form.

“Back off, foxface!”

“Taeyong, what are you doing?” You demanded, heat quickly rising to your face as he held you against him. How the _fuck_ were you going to explain this to Yuta?

“It’s him!” Taeyong spat out.

“What?”

“He’s the fox!”

_“What?”_

“From the bookstore! The fox that’s always scenting you!”

Yuta didn’t seem disturbed in the slightest, holding up his hands in surrender, an action that was countered by his devious smile, “Guilty as charged. I’m a Kitsune. Zenko if you want to be super precise.”

“Why am I even surprised anymore?” You sighed, detaching Taeyong from you to resume your journey to the kitchen. “Next thing I know my fucking couch is going to be an Ayakashi.”

“You’re not going to flip out on him at all?” Taeyong asked, clearly offended that you’d given in so easily with no questioning of Yuta like you’d done to him.

“He never stayed in the same room as me while I changed!”

“Oh, that’s creepy, Tama,” Yuta commented with a snicker.

“My name is _Taeyong_ ,” he jeered back.

“Well, nice to finally meet you, _Taeyong_.”

As you retrieved three cups of ramen from your pantry, you were still processing your prior relationship to fox-Yuta, “So you two have just been fighting over… scenting me?”

“Foxes are naturally tricksters, he just wanted to piss me off,” Taeyong accused with a scowl.

“I’m hurt,” the other man placed a hand over his chest in mock offense. “You should know that Kitsune are also portrayed as friends, guardians, and _lovers_.”

You sprinkled in the flavor packets before pouring water into the three cups up to the fill line, “Yuta, I’ve known you for years.”

“Yes, and? Even Ayakashi need an education in this day and age. Except for Taeyong here, looks like he’s just going to freeload off you for his whole life.”

“Hey!” The Nekomata was getting more riled up by the minute.

“Is Jaehyun…?” You broke back into the conversation, sticking the ramen in the microwave and starting it.

“Nope, and neither is Jaemin,” Yuta confirmed for you. “Two entirely normal humans. But Jaemin’s roommate—”

“I already know that Jeno’s a Tengu,” you guessed what he was about to say, leaving him speechless for a moment. “Wait, did you two know the other was Ayakashi when you were… animals?”

Taeyong shook his head, “No.”

“I’m a little older than our pretty kitty here,” the Kitsune explained. “I could smell it on you, underneath the whole… cat smell.”

“It was horrible having you come home wreaking of foxface. Disgusting,” Taeyong’s nose wrinkled at just the memory of the smell, an admittedly cute sight to see.

“Talking about me like I’m not even here.”

“Okay, now you two are giving me a headache,” you declared with an eye roll.

“Sorry, Y/N,” the white-haired man apologized, dipping his head in shame.

Just a couple minutes later, the microwave beeped, and you took the ramen back out. The three of you sat around your coffee table in your living room, Yuta across from you and Taeyong, the air between the two Ayakashi tense.

“So… any other Ayakashi at our school?” You prompted Yuta, hoping that this conversation would be a little lighter.

“Not saying,” he slurped up a noodle. “It’d be no fun to just tell you.”

“You are impossible, Yuta.”

“So I’ve heard.”

An idea popped into your head, “Do you know Lenticular Café, on Bell Street?”

“Y/N…” Taeyong whined, presumably not liking where this was going.

Yuta responded, “I’m not very familiar with the establishment but I am familiar with the owner.”

“Johnny? The Domeki?”

“And the… boy.”

“Renjun, the Satori.”

“Seems like you know quite a few of the Ayakashi in town.”

“Sicheng—the employee at my parents’ bookstore—is an Ayakashi too, but I don’t know what kind,” you admitted, hoping that there was a slight chance that Yuta knew of him too.

“Can’t help you there, Y/N,” Yuta brought another forkful of noodles to his mouth as he looked at you curiously.

“What? Do I have broth on my face?”

He swallowed before answering, still looking at you that same way, “No, it’s just… curious that you have so many Ayakashi around you.”

“I don’t know, I kind of stumbled into all these acquaintances,” you shrugged, uncomfortable at what he was vaguely suggesting. “I wasn’t exactly searching for something I didn’t know existed until a couple weeks ago.”

“Sorry if it seemed like I was implying anything, Y/N.”

“No, no, you’re fine,” you brushed off his concerns, returning to your original subject. “Anyway, Jeno, Johnny, Renjun, Taeyong, and I are meeting at Lenticular Café tonight. I think Johnny wants to talk to us about something, and it’s probably about Ayakashi and the Wraiths. Do you want to come?”

“I’ve never really involved myself with stuff like that,” Yuta mused.

“Then don’t start,” Taeyong growled, seeming somewhat menacing until he sloshed bright orange ramen broth onto his white shirt.

You sighed, “Aren’t cats supposed to be graceful? You’re the clumsiest person I know, Taeyong.”

“I’m perfectly graceful in my cat form!”

“Go get another shirt from my room.”

When he came back with a plain black shirt this time, Yuta locked his gaze on him while answering your question, “I’d love to go tonight, Y/N.”

Taeyong seemed about ready to pounce on the Kitsune, and you coaxed him to instead lean against your chest, running your fingers through his hair insistently to calm him down.

“It’s at five,” you informed Yuta, still working your fingers through Taeyong’s white locks.

“Sounds like a date.”

Taeyong tensed in your arms, and you snorted back at Yuta, “Yeah, with me and four other dudes.”

Yuta laughed, dissolving some of the tension in the air as he returned to his food.


	3. [three]

Yuta had left your apartment fairly soon after the three of you finished your meal, promising to meet up with you at Lenticular Café. As you led Taeyong through the streets that evening, you found yourself thankful that whatever magical ability allowed him to change between human and cat also gave him clothes in his human form, and that those clothes fit right in with the current state of fashion.

That thought made you ask, “Taeyong, should I get you some more clothes?”

“You don’t have to,” he shook his head. “I don’t want to freeload off of you.”

“Taeyong, if you need clothes, I will buy you clothes. Don’t let Yuta get in your head.”

“I’m alright with just these. Some kind of magic keeps them clean, for the most part. Unless I spill something on them.”

“Like ramen,” you teased, taking a look over his dark jeans, freshly washed white t-shirt, and simple black shoes. “We’ll at least need to get you a jacket when it starts getting colder.”

“Thank you.”

The two of you soon arrived at Lenticular Café, the closed sign flipped around once again. Walking in, you already spotted Renjun, Johnny, and Jeno in various places at or near one of the larger booths. You led the way over to them, Taeyong right behind you.

“Hey, guys,” you greeted them, sliding in across from where Jeno was half-asleep slouched against the wall, his legs up on the seat.

“Hey, Y/N. Good to see you again, Taeyong,” Johnny greeted the both of you kindly.

“Oh, Renjun, this is Taeyong. Taeyong, this is Huang Renjun,” you introduced the two of them, unsure of how much Renjun had been told by his friend.

“Nekomata, right?” Renjun questioned from his spot in a chair pulled up from a nearby table.

Taeyong nodded, “Satori?”

At Renjun’s nod, Johnny cleared his throat, “We’re still waiting on one more.”

“Make that two more,” you informed him, now curious as to who Johnny was referencing.

The two fully awake men looked at you questioningly, and you added, “My friend Nakamoto Yuta is a Kitsune, I invited him tonight.”

“Right, Yuta,” Johnny nodded with some familiarity. “Never expected him to do this kind of stuff.”

“Uh, what kind of stuff, exactly?”

“I’ll explain in a minute, once our last two members arrive.”

Just a few seconds after he’d declared that, the front door was pushed open, and you were surprised by the figure who walked in. Sicheng approached your table as well, bowing his head almost remorsefully, knowing exactly what was coming his way.

“‘I know about Ayakashi, Sicheng.’ ‘About what?’” You mimicked your previous conversation with him, deepening your voice mockingly to imitate him.

“I’m sorry, Y/N,” Sicheng apologized, running a hand through his hair anxiously.

“Yeah, yeah.”

You weren’t actually too terribly pissed, just rather annoyed at the fact that he had tried to play dumb with you earlier.

Johnny spoke up, “Okay, so now we’re just waiting for Yuta.”

A few silent minutes passed by, the only sound being Jeno’s steady breathing as he snoozed. At ten after, as the awake five of you exchanged antsy and anticipatory glances, the door finally opened again. Yuta stepped through, beaming at everybody.

“Oh, finally!” Taeyong hissed quietly, eyes already narrowed at Yuta.

Johnny moved to lock the door now that everybody had arrived.

“Sorry about that, I got a little lost on my way here,” Yuta apologized for his tardiness, having no qualms about shoving Jeno’s legs off the bench to sit down himself.

Jeno startled awake, glaring around at being woken up, “Who the fuck— oh shit.”

“Hello, Jeno.”

“Why is he here?” Jeno questioned you accusatorily, jerking his thumb at Yuta.

“I was invited.”

What the hell happened between _them_?

Johnny clapped, breaking the tension and calling everybody’s attention to him, “Okay, we’re all here. Let’s just do some simple introductions. Name and what you are. I’ll go first. I’m Johnny, and I’m a Domeki.”

“This sounds like an AA meeting,” Renjun shook his head, but did it anyway. “I’m Renjun, a Satori.”

Sicheng was next, and you leaned forward to listen to this with interest, “I’m Sicheng, and I’m a Mizuchi dragon.”

Your eyebrows shot up. That, admittedly, sounded pretty fucking rad.

“I’m Taeyong!” The man beside you piped up. “I’m a Nekomata.”

That meant it was your turn, “Uh, I’m Y/N, and I’m an Onmyoji Diviner, I guess.”

Yuta narrowed his eyes ever so slightly when you revealed this, his interest clearly having been piqued. He didn’t address your claim, instead listening to Jeno’s introduction, “Jeno. Tengu.”

“I’m Yuta, and I’m a Kitsune. Specifically a zenko, the good kind.”

“Good?” Taeyong snorted in disbelief, bringing Yuta’s gaze to him.

“Say something, pretty kitty?”

Before the two of them could start their bickering back up, Sicheng butted in, asking Yuta, “How many tails do you have?”

Yuta crossed his arms, his eyes downcast as he incoherently mumbled a response.

“What was that?”

“Three,” he repeated it, barely intelligible.

“Ha! You’re a little baby Ayakashi too! A little _kit_ you are!” Taeyong was absolutely howling with laughter at this revelation, sneering out the word ‘kit’ at Yuta.

“That’s one more tail than you, kitty,” Yuta growled back, looking as if he was about ready to leap across the table at the Nekomata.

“I _will_ put you two in time out,” you warned, encouraging them to sit back in their seats again but still maintaining glowering eye contact. “What does it matter how many _tails_ Yuta has? And also, Taeyong has two tails?”

Sicheng offered up an explanation as the one who first posed the question, “Kitsune can have up to nine tails. The more tails, the more powerful and older they are. Three tails mean Yuta’s fairly young for a Kitsune.”

“And in my true Nekomata form, I’d look kind of like this, but with cat ears and two tails,” Taeyong said, to which you groaned.

“Not even going to comment on that one,” you shook your head, wanting to go back to the original topic at hand. “So why did you want to talk to us all, Johnny?”

All eyes were back on the Domeki who stood at the head of the table, hands laced in front of him.

“As some of you may be aware of, the presence of Wraiths in our city has been growing almost exponentially in the past couple months. Not just that, but they’re becoming violent towards both Ayakashi and humans, as well as being able to make their own temporary human forms instead of having to possess humans. They’re also regenerating faster after being dispersed.”

“And you’re telling us this, because…?” Yuta interjected, not seeming incredibly interested by Johnny’s news.

“One, as a heads-up for all of you to be vigilant. And two, because I think we’re in a position to do something about it.”

“What, like some kind of knock-off Ayakashi Avengers or something?” Renjun snorted, standing up from his chair. “You’ve officially gone off your rocker, old man.”

“That sounds like a lot of work,” Jeno yawned, pulling his baseball cap a little lower over his eyes and slouching back against the wall again.

Nobody seemed on-board with his idea, grumbles of dissention flying around the table, many moving to leave the café.

Then Sicheng spoke up, eyes a fiery blue and brows furrowed as he made intense eye contact with every person around the table, “Do you all have no sense of duty? Of gratefulness and appreciation for the community and city you’re a part of? You’re willing to just stand by and give up before even trying, to watch the enemy raze your town to the ground?”

Everybody was startlingly silent, most—including you—looking down at their hands or feet in shame. Sicheng had called out each and every one of you with such hot-blooded accuracy.

The group was noiseless, until a great sigh came from the corner of the table, Jeno groaning out, “Fine! Okay! Jeez, dude, I’ll help.”

As soon as Jeno had given in, the others started piling on their own declarations of assistance.

“Obviously, I’m going to be helping too,” Johnny added.

“I’ll come, if nothing else, to make sure the old man doesn’t throw out his back fighting these Wraiths,” Renjun rolled his eyes, distinct pink flush returning.

You nervously fidgeted with your thumbs, “I’ll do what I can to help you guys. But you should know that uhm, my powers haven’t awakened yet. I’m not sure what exactly I can do to help, but I’ll do my best!”

“If Y/N’s doing it, so am I!” Taeyong jumped in protectively.

That just left Yuta, who was still sitting with his arms crossed over his chest.

“Yuta?” You said his name, your question clear without having to voice it.

Yuta took a moment to contemplate before he was grinning again, “Why not? It sounds kind of fun!”

“Alright, seems like we’ve got a team here,” Johnny surveyed the group with a bright smile, absolutely brimming with pride.

When Sicheng looked to Johnny, his irises were once again brown, “You’re the one who brought us together, Johnny. Do you have a plan?”

“I wasn’t sure I’d get this far,” he admitted, rubbing at the back of his neck sheepishly.

Right as a dissident chorus of groans and complaints sprung up, Sicheng’s gaze suddenly snapped to the entrance, eyes narrowing. You watched him with intrigue, nerves flaring up as his eyes turned blue again. Whatever had drawn his attention to the front of the shop caught Johnny’s as well, as he inhaled sharply.

“Cut it!” The Domeki barked sharply to everybody.

A somberness fell over the entire table as they seemed to realize what the other two had. Except you, you were at a loss. All you knew was that it wasn’t going to be good.

“Looks like the Ayakashi Avengers are getting our first assignment,” Yuta announced, rising slowly to his feet.

“We are _not_ calling ourselves that,” Jeno scoffed, his black wings appearing.

“Johnny, where’s the safest place for Y/N?” Taeyong asked, and you could see his hands trembling before he squeezed them into tight fists.

“My office in the back.”

“Come on, Y/N,” the Nekomata tried to urge you out of the booth, but you didn’t move.

“No,” you refused. “I said I’d help you guys out, and I’m going to.”

Renjun snapped, “If you don’t have your powers yet, you’re just going to get in the way!”

Before anybody else could argue with you, the entire restaurant shuddered. The walls, windows, doors, and floors all trembled for a moment. But you had a feeling this wasn’t an earthquake. The blinds were closed, but outside seemed much darker than you remembered it being just a few moments ago.

“Is it the Wraiths that Jeno fucked up?” You questioned.

“And they brought friends,” the Satori confirmed.

“Why are you all just standing there? Let’s barricade the door or something!”

“That’s… not a bad idea,” Renjun’s biting tone fizzled out as he thought over your suggestion.

Immediately, the seven of you worked together to barricade the doors, despite continued tremoring of the building.

“The protective charm over the café will only last so long,” Johnny informed the group as he pushed some of the smaller tables over.

“Move if you don’t want to get wrecked by a table,” Jeno warned right before he thrusted the largest tables against the walls and doors with a simple flick of his hand.

Yuta barely was able to jerk you out of the way of one, cursing the Tengu out as he kept his protective hold on your shoulders, “Watch what you’re doing, featherbrain! You almost fucking killed Y/N!”

He simply shrugged in response.

“Thanks, Yuta,” you slipped out from his grasp to continue the barricading efforts.

“There’s a lot of them!” Taeyong squeaked out from where he was peeking through a slit in the blinds.

“How much did you piss these Wraiths off, Jeno?” The Kitsune spat out accusingly, stacking chairs onto the tables.

“Hey! Why do you think this is my fault? Renjun’s the one who picked the fight with them in the first place!”

“I’m not the one who threw a fucking table at them!” Renjun shot back, face red with anger as he confronted Jeno, fists clenched.

Jeno had previously been hovering with his wings to stack things higher than any of you could from the ground, but now descended back on his own two feet to get up in the other boy’s face, looking equally pissed.

“Yeah, but if you hadn’t gotten your damn panties in a twist over them loitering for a millisecond too long—”

Jeno was cut off by the Satori’s fist impacting with his face. Renjun punched Jeno. Decked him square in the nose.

The Tengu held a hand up to his nose, feeling at the wet blood. And when he brought his hand back down, Renjun was sprawled on the ground.

A scream had left your mouth before you could realize it.

Renjun wasn’t down for long, scrambling to his feet again, one eye a bright jade. Right as he got his footing again, he was thrown back against a table.

This wasn’t a fair fight by far, even if Renjun had thrown the first punch. Not to mention that you all were supposed to be working _together_ as a team against the real threat, not beating each other up while your actual enemy was waiting right outside to destroy you.

“Hey stop it!” You tried to make a break for Renjun, but a pair of arms grabbed you and held you back. “Yuta, let me go!”

“No,” he replied firmly. “I can’t let you get yourself killed.”

Would trying to help Renjun actually get you killed? Was Yuta trying to tell you that Jeno would kill you?

The idea made a shudder run up your spine, and you found yourself watching on helplessly as Renjun kept standing up just to immediately be knocked back down by the threateningly slow approaching Jeno.

“Jeno,” Johnny called out to the both, voice low and calm. He was the closest to the two of them, trying to diffuse the situation at hand.

As Jeno raised his hand to presumably dispose of Johnny, it was suddenly restrained. A column of water had wrapped around both his wrists like handcuffs. He struggled against them, trying to fling his targets again, but he was stuck. The water had shot up from the ground, the piping below the restaurant now exposed in two spots right underneath the Tengu’s arms.

Sicheng was looking on, fire in his ocean blue eyes as he purposefully walked to stand directly in front of Jeno, between him and Renjun.

“You don’t fight your own comrades,” Sicheng hissed, fury in every syllable. “You promised to help us. That wasn’t just a promise to me, or Johnny, or to fight the Wraiths. It was a promise to the entire group. We are all supposed to have each other’s backs. Killing one of your teammates is like killing a part of yourself. Do you understand?”

His tone had softened just a bit as he continued on, looking more pained than pissed at this point.

Jeno stopped fighting against the water restraints, breathing heavily through his nose as he looked at Sicheng with nearly murderous intent. Then he took a long blink, and nodded, “Yeah, I do.”

“Renjun?” Sicheng prompted the Satori as well, not letting him off the hook so easily.

Despite having the clear disadvantage, he _had_ taken the first swing at Jeno, evident by the blood still trickling from the Tengu’s nose.

“I understand,” he agreed solemnly, embarrassment clear with his red face and ears.

When Sicheng dropped the restraints from Jeno’s wrists, Yuta’s grip on you tightened just a bit. Jeno walked around the Mizuchi dragon, towards Renjun. He stopped in front of him to offer a hand out to the boy still on the ground.

Renjun didn’t take it, instead pushing himself up off the ground, “Thank you.”

Jeno didn’t seem too affronted by Renjun’s rejection of his clear peace offering, the two of them instead turning to look back at the rest of you. Yuta finally let go of your arms, and you found yourself able to breathe normally again.

But your relief was short-lived as Taeyong flew back from his perch at the window with a yelp, “The protective charm is failing!”

“How do you know that?” Yuta asked.

The Nekomata picked something up from the table he had just fell off of. When he held it up, you saw that it was a shard of glass.

“Shit!” Johnny cursed, taking a look out of the window on the other side of the door. “There’s too many of them for us to fight.”

“Jeno and I will hold them back while you guys get out of here,” Sicheng stood firmly where he was.

“Sicheng—”

He cut Johnny off, “Jeno and I are the most powerful, we’ll stand the best chance against them. You guys take Y/N somewhere safe.”

More thuds came against the windows and the doors as he spoke, Wraiths getting closer and closer to breaking in. But you couldn’t bring yourself to leave them.

“Come with us!” You pleaded, not liking the nearly suicidal implications of his words.

“Y/N,” Taeyong tried to usher you towards the back of the restaurant, but you pushed his hand off of you.

“Johnny, is there an exit in the back?”

“Yeah, we have a back alley.”

“Can a car fit in it?”

“That’s how we get some of our food deliveries, yes.”

“I have an idea,” you declared, focus not slipping from Sicheng and Jeno. “I can get all of us out of here. But you two have to come with us.”

Sicheng held your determined gaze for a breath-taking minute. Then he nodded.

“Alright, everybody back in Johnny’s office!” You ordered.

“What are we going to be doing back there, exactly?” Renjun questioned, but followed behind everybody towards the purple curtain nevertheless.

“Waiting.”

Once everybody had packed into Johnny’s rather small office, you were relieved to see that he had a landline, remembering that cell phones didn’t work near the Wraiths. You pulled a card from the back of your phone case, flipping it over to dial the handwritten number on the back.

Well, this was going to be a longshot.

The line rang, and you nervously tried to block out the sounds of the Wraiths smashing the windows at the front of the restaurant as you focused solely on the phone in your hand.

“She’s making a phone call?” Renjun scoffed in disbelief.

A click signified that your call had been picked up, and you immediately breathed out, “Kun?”

“Yes?” Came the man’s voice through the speaker beside your ear.

“This is Y/N, from Bibliophile Books.”

“It’s so nice to hear from you,” Kun’s voice turned much smoother and silkier. “I was afraid you’d never contact me.”

You couldn’t waste your time with pleasantries, “You told me to call you if I needed anything. Are you good on that offer?”

Clearly sensing the urgency in your voice, the man on the other end of the line turned serious, “Yes. Do you need something?”

“Me and some of my friends are in a bit of a squeeze right now… could you send a car or something to pick us up?”

“Of course, what’s your address?”

“Uh, Lenticular Café on Bell Street, just a few doors down from the bookstore. Come through the back alley.”

You could hear a couple clicks and voices on Kun’s end before his voice was back in your ear, “Okay, we’re on our way.”

“Thank you so much,” you breathed out in relief, giving your companions a thumbs-up.

“Are you alright, Y/N?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Okay, we’ll be there in just a couple minutes. Hang tight.”

“I am.”

“Can you stay on the phone with me?” Kun kept talking with you, his own calm voice helping to keep your heartrate down.

“Yeah, I can,” you agreed, foot tapping against the ground nervously.

Kun gave you updates on the car’s location, until he had announced that it was turning onto Bell Street.

“Okay, I have to hang up now, I’m on a landline,” you informed Kun, gesturing for your friends to start getting ready to move. “We’ll meet you outside.”

You were jostled into the middle of the group of men hurrying through the short hallway towards the back door. Taeyong had an arm around your shoulders as Yuta guided you by your arm on your other side. Sicheng and Jeno brought up the rear, with Renjun and Johnny trying to unlock the door. Johnny jammed the key into the lock with a grunt, trying to turn it.

“What’s the hold-up?” Yuta called out, glancing over his shoulder.

“We haven’t really gotten a delivery recently,” Johnny yelled back, still fighting with the sticky lock. “It’s just a little stuck.”

There was a distinct _crack!_ that shot through the café from behind you. It was the front door flying off its hinges, and you jumped as it impacted with the far wall, just a few inches from the entrance to the hallway you were in. A hallway that was only sealed off by a single purple curtain.

You grabbed at Taeyong’s shirt in fear as you heard the windows shatter as well, the tables and chairs that had served as your barricade crashing down and being thrown around as if in a tornado.

“Move, Johnny!” Yuta ordered, letting go of your arm to pull the Domeki back from the door.

“I’ve got this side!” Sicheng yelled out, and you looked back to see a wall of water protecting your group.

The purple curtain was nowhere to be seen, having been ripped off its hinges by the Wraiths. Even distorted through water, they were terrifying. Several pairs of red orbs seemed to stare right at you, their forms indistinguishable from one another, making them all look much bigger. But they just stayed there. They weren’t trying to break through Sicheng’s water shield. Just standing there, like they were visitors at a zoo, watching the trapped animals pace around their enclosures.

Back at the door, Yuta asked for everybody to move back a little bit, and you felt yourself being pressed against somebody’s back. A feather brushed your arm, and knew it to be Jeno, who was facing the Wraiths alongside Sicheng.

Another _crack!_ came, this time in front of you as Yuta had kicked the door open. You all came pouring out, Taeyong insistently pushing at the small of your back to thrust you forwards through the others.

A black SUV was in the back alley, the door opening from inside.

Johnny now had a grip on you, and you couldn’t tell where Taeyong was in this mess anymore. The Domeki ushered you towards the SUV, and a set of hands from within helped you inside. More of your friends crammed in after you, in the far backseats as well, and you did a panicked head count.

Taeyong, Johnny, Yuta, Renjun, Jeno. You were missing one. Where was Sicheng?

Right as you were ready to scramble over everybody to go back out and search for him, a body flew into the backseat, the door slamming behind him.

“Go!” Ordered the person protectively holding you to his chest, the driver throwing the car in reverse back out of the alley.

You finally started gaining your bearings again. You were in Kun’s arms, Taeyong and Johnny on your other side. The other five were packed into the backseat, Sicheng struggling to get himself off everybody’s laps that he had landed on when he jumped into the car.

The car was speeding away from Bell Street, and you were still speechless.

“Y/N, are you okay?” Kun asked, his voice reverberating against your back.

You lamely nodded, knowing that you hadn’t sustained any injuries.

“Let go of her!” Taeyong jerked you away from the man, glowering at him suspiciously.

Kun had willingly let go of you to allow the Nekomata to pull you to himself instead. He now regarded all of your friends with a raised eyebrow. Without acknowledging Taeyong’s comment, he addressed your group, “This is an interesting assortment of friends you have, Y/N. A Nekomata, Domeki, Satori, Kitsune, Tengu, and Mizuchi dragon.”

Your assumptions had been correct. But you weren’t sure if you should be relieved about that or not, gauging by the look Kun was regarding your friends with. It seemed nearly predatory as he made eye contact with each and every one of them as he listed off what kind of Ayakashi they were.

None of your friends confirmed or denied Kun’s labelling of them.

Jeno and Renjun had been able to sense when people were Ayakashi or Wraiths but couldn’t tell you what kind they were. You’d never even seen Johnny be able to identify what kind of Ayakashi someone was. If power comes with age, and Johnny was considered an old man, you weren’t sure how old Kun was. He must have been able to sense that you were an Onmyoji when you met, then.

“So I was right. You’re an Ayakashi too, Kun,” you finally broke the silence, holding Kun’s intense gaze when it landed back to you.

“Yes, I am,” he confirmed your suspicions.

You felt a small ruffle of your hair, and looked over Taeyong at Johnny, the culprit. He was smirking at you, and you could practically hear him saying ‘smart little lady’ in your mind. You couldn’t help but smile back.

“Looks like those Wraiths got you pretty good, Tengu,” Kun addressed Jeno, pulling a navy blue handkerchief out from his pocket and handing it to him.

“This wasn’t the Wraiths…” Jeno muttered, wiping at the blood with his hand instead of accepting the handkerchief.

Not wanting to admit that your team had been fighting each other instead of the Wraiths, you turned the focus back to Kun, “What kind of Ayakashi are you, Kun?”

It wasn’t Kun who answered you, but Sicheng, his voice filled with venom, “He’s an Oni Ogre. I can’t believe they’d be so blatant as to name their business ‘Oni;’ it’d be like me writing ‘I’m a Mizuchi dragon and I can control water!’ on a business card and handing it out to everyone I meet.”

“And yet nobody’s figured me out,” Kun smoothly retorted, seeming almost amused at the malice with which Sicheng spoke of him. “Save for you, of course.”

“Was Doyoung an Oni Ogre too?” You butted in to ask.

“The Oni part only describes the family that heads the company, the employees can be anything, human or Ayakashi.”

“Knowing ogres, they probably have Wraiths on their payroll too,” Sicheng grumbled quietly, still glaring at the back of Kun’s head.

Kun didn’t acknowledge Sicheng, instead nodding his head towards the front seat, “So? What are you, Doyoung?”

It was just then that you noticed that the driver was, in fact, Doyoung, and he looked at you in the rearview mirror, answering your question with no emotion in his voice, “Snow spirit.”

Taeyong spoke up, looking at you in confusion, “Wait, you didn’t—?”

“No, I didn’t sense it,” you admitted with a sigh. “I just… took a leap of logic.”

“I’d like to hear how you were able to logic out that I’m an Ayakashi,” Kun requested, observing you with intrigue.

“Sicheng’s reaction to you giving me your number was my first clue, and the fact that every single new person that has come into my life in the past two or three weeks has been an Ayakashi… I figured that pattern might have continued with you and Doyoung. But I still don’t have my powers.”

“Bravo,” the Oni complimented you, but you couldn’t find any pride in what you just said.

Focused on your hands in your lap, you chewed on the inside of your lip. You still didn’t have your powers.

“Hey, little lady, that frown doesn’t suit you,” Johnny said, reaching around the front of Taeyong to gently lift your chin up to look at him. “I promise, you’ll get your powers. And in the meantime, you’re not disappointing any of us by not having them, okay?”

“Well…” Jeno said contrarily from the backseat.

“Take a nap, featherbrain!” Taeyong hissed at the Tengu.

Sicheng’s next words lifted your spirits just a tiny bit, “I can’t confirm myself if Y/N’s an Onmyoji, but the fact that she’s acquired so many Ayakashi around her would suggest so.”

“That fact that I’ve _what?_ ”

“Supernatural things tend to be drawn to other supernatural things, consciously or not. We might not be able to sense your powers but have still ended up with you.”

“Does that mean that the Wraiths are drawn to me too?”

“Sometimes I wish you weren’t so smart, little lady,” Johnny sadly commented, patting your head.

Reluctantly, Sicheng answered your question, “It’s probable, yes.”

Despite the dark pool of guilt growing in your stomach, you locked eyes with Kun, determined, “Am I an Onmyoji, Kun? Am I the reason the Wraiths attacked the café today?”

The Oni didn’t even question why you were asking him specifically. He answered, “Yes, Y/N, you’re an Onmyoji. And as for whether you’re the reason you and your friends were attacked today… you’re the most powerful Onmyoji to come around in almost a millennium. It’s the most likely option.”

You nodded, turning your eyes back to your lap solemnly.

“Way to make her feel like _shit_ , Kun!” Yuta snapped at him.

“She wasn’t asking for me to coddle her, she was asking for the truth!” Kun argued back.

You were brought into someone’s chest, hands working through your hair soothingly. It was Taeyong, and if you were in a different state, you’d probably laugh at the reversal of roles in that moment. Yuta and Kun were still bickering in the background, Sicheng joining in as well, but their voices were tuned out. It sounded like muffled gibberish to you as you kept staring at a single spot ahead of you.

“Everybody’s okay, Y/N,” Taeyong reminded you, quietly murmuring next to your ear. “You got us out, you saved us all tonight. You did good, you’re a good person, with or without your powers.”

A large, warm hand squeezed your thigh, and you knew it to be Johnny, giving you his own silent support. But you couldn’t focus on any of your friends. You were the one who got them attacked tonight, and you couldn’t even use your supposed Onmyoji powers to help them. You were a useless hazard in their lives.

The dull din of the other voices in the car was cut through by a shout, “When are we getting out?!”

It was Renjun, and you whipped around to look at him. He had pressed himself against the side of the car, curling in on himself to get as far away from Yuta as possible. His eyes were screwed shut as if the attempt to not come into contact with anybody was physically paining him, beads of sweat breaking out on his forehead. His muscles were trembling with the seemingly Herculean effort he was putting in.

Right, Renjun was a Satori, he could read people’s minds by touching them. He was respecting their privacy by trying not to touch them.

“Pull over and let Renjun get in the front seat!” You turned back around to order Doyoung.

The snow spirit made no move to do so, and you could feel your own rage bubbling up again, “Kim Doyoung! Pull the fucking car over!”

“Do as she says, Doyoung,” Kun said, and the car immediately started slowing down.

It wasn’t even in park yet before Renjun threw the door open and ran to get into the front seat. Now by himself, you could see the tension leave his body once more.

“And you say your powers haven’t awoken?” Yuta regarded you with interest as the car started moving once more.

“No,” you shook your head. “I just know my friends.”

* * *

Finally, Doyoung stopped in front of your apartment complex, and you didn’t even question how he knew your address, all too relieved for the night to be over.

“Y/N shouldn’t be left alone tonight,” Kun declared, seeming about to offer himself up.

“I live with her, she’ll be fine!” Taeyong shot back a little too loudly.

Kun didn’t seem convinced, “I don’t know if one Nekomata is enough…”

“I’ve got class tomorrow and I’m sure you all have work, I don’t want to inconvenience anybody else tonight,” you interjected.

“I’ll do it,” came a voice from the front seat.

Renjun had been the one to offer, not meeting your eyes as the tips of his ears burned red.

“I probably won’t have work tomorrow, anyway,” he added on, referencing the definitely destroyed café.

“There’s some clean up to do, but that can wait a day or so,” Johnny agreed, settling the matter.

So you climbed out with Taeyong and Renjun. The SUV didn’t leave until you were in your building, motoring down the street with the rest of your friends inside. The three of you were silent as you led the way into your apartment, flicking the light on. The comforting familiarity of your small home brought a faint smile to your face.

“I might have some sweatpants and shirts that you can wear, Renjun,” you told the Satori. “I think Jaemin’s left some. Or I stole them, we’ll never know which.”

“Jaemin?” He echoed your friend’s name.

“My best friend since we were little,” you pointed at one of the frames up on your wall, all pictures of you with your friends and family. The one you pointed to in particular was a picture from your most recent birthday, when he’d swiped icing on your nose right as Jaehyun was taking a picture. “He’s slept over a few times.”

With that, you retreated into your bedroom, closing the door behind you to change yourself, then rifle through your drawers for Jaemin’s clothes. You were correct, you had a pair of his grey sweatpants, and a couple different graphic tees. You grabbed one at random, and reemerged from your room, holding the stack of clothes out to Renjun.

“Thank you,” he accepted them, looking around your apartment.

“Bathroom’s on your left,” you informed him, moving into your kitchen to get a couple glasses of water for you.

Taeyong was back in his cat form, curled up in the corner of the couch peacefully. He must be tuckered out, despite it not even being seven o’clock yet. You knew that you were pretty tired as well, but your mind probably wouldn’t let you get a good rest tonight. Too much to think about, too much to worry about.

You still put out some dry food for Taeyong, figuring he’d wake up late at night, hungry, and you preferred him to eat his own cat food instead of your human food if he had midnight snacking to do. You’d already had a mysterious disappearance of Goldfish and candy in the middle of the night twice now since you’d learned of his true form. You also refreshed his water bowl while you were there.

Setting the glass you’d poured for Renjun down, you took a long drink of your own. The bathroom door clicked open, the Satori walking back out into your living space.

“I didn’t know where to put my work clothes, so they’re folded on the counter,” he informed you politely.

“That’s fine,” you assured him, holding his cup out to him. “Here, some water.”

Renjun delicately took it from you, careful not to accidentally brush your hand. You took note of that.

He nodded towards the couch, “Is he asleep?”

“Oh yeah, he’s going to be knocked out for a good couple of hours.”

After he took a sip of the water, he set the cup back down on your kitchen counter, facing you with squared shoulders.

“I wanted to thank you, for what you did for me in the car,” he bowed his head respectfully, and your eyes widened at this. There was no trace of bitterness or cynicism in his voice.

“Of course, you were trying so hard to respect everybody’s privacy.”

Renjun gave you a strange look as he stood back up, but shook it off as he added, “And I wanted to clarify something: you consider us friends?”

“Yeah,” you shrugged. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“Well, we haven’t known each other for that long.”

“Renjun, did you ever go to sleepaway camp as a kid?”

He raised an eyebrow at this seemingly random derailment of the conversation, but answered you anyway, “No, I didn’t.”

“I did. You go to this place that you’ve never been to before, with dozens of kids you’ve never met before, and you’re with them for a whole week. By the second day, you’re best friends with almost everybody in your cabin, and at the end of the week, you say goodbye. Then you return next summer, and you see all your best friends from last summer, and it feels like no time has passed.”

Renjun was listening intently, confusion still painted across his features.

Your cheeks flushed as you shook your head at yourself, “I think my point got a little convoluted with that metaphor. What I was trying to say was that being someone’s friend doesn’t necessarily have to depend on how long you’ve known them, sometimes it can be the circumstances you met them in.”

“We met when you made a delivery to Lenticular,” he was still trying to make the connection, to which you rolled your eyes and threw your hands up.

“Alright, never mind! We’re not friends, I hate you!”

“That’s not what I meant!”

“I’m teasing, Renjun,” you laughed at his slight distress. “You’re easy to work up, you know that?”

“No I’m not.”

“Mm, sure.”

Renjun took another sip of the water before saying, “I have one more thing to ask you, Y/N.”

“Go ahead.”

“Do you have Jeno’s number?”

“Yeah, do you want to call him?” You asked, already reaching for your phone.

“No, but can you just ask him how, you know… his face is?”

You nodded, opening up your text conversation with Jeno. Your last text was still there, threatening Jeno’s life if you all got attacked by Wraiths at your meeting. Ironic.

“But don’t tell him I’m asking,” Renjun blurted out right as you started drafting your text to him.

“Okay…”

[you: hey, how’s your face?]

[jeno: fine, my nose isn’t broken]

[you: good]

[you: did jaemin have questions?]

[jeno: i told him i was falling asleep and had a hypnogogic jerk and ended up smashing my face into a desk]

[you: that’s… rather specific]

[jeno: he believed it]

[jeno: is that all?]

[you: yeah, i’m glad you’re okay]

He didn’t reply, and you figured he’d fallen asleep. For once, it was warranted.

Turning your phone off, you gave the boy with you the bare minimum of your conversation, “He’s fine, Renjun, you didn’t break his nose or anything.”

Renjun nodded, looking up to the ceiling thankfully.

* * *

The next morning, you woke up to the sound of your regular alarm that got you up for your nine a.m. Oh joy. You snoozed it and rolled over, burying yourself under your covers. A small paw pressed against your arm through the covers, then your face. You let out a muffled groan, trying to dissuade Taeyong from bothering you. There were still two more five-minute snoozes left on your alarm.

He stepped on your face again, and with a grumble, you lifted up your covers just enough for the cat to slip under. Wriggling around until his small, warm body was pressed against your side, Taeyong let out a small _mrow_.

“Don’t say a fucking word,” you warned him, eyes still squeezed shut.

After going through another two rounds of snoozing your alarm, you finally dismissed it. The blankets were peeled away from your body, and you sat up, rubbing at your eyes and letting out a yawn. You hopped out of bed, heading out to your kitchen. Renjun had taken over your couch last night, but when you walked out of your room, he was nowhere to be seen. Some noises were coming from your bathroom, which you assumed to be the missing Satori.

“Taeyong, human or cat food?” You asked the now-man standing in your kitchen with you.

“What are you making?”

“Like, eggs or something.”

He wrinkled his nose, and was suddenly a cat again. There was your answer.

As you started heating up your pan, you dispensed Taeyong’s wet food into his food bowl. You’d just cracked some eggs into the pan when the bathroom door opened. It was Renjun, back in his work clothes from the day before.

“Hey, I’m making eggs, are you okay with that?” You called out to your guest.

“I’m not hungry,” Renjun shook his head, grabbing his phone from the coffee table to pocket it. “I’ve got to get going, you’ll be fine getting to your class, right?”

“Oh, yeah, yeah, I’ll be fine,” you reassured him, slightly caught off-guard. He had said last night that he wouldn’t have work, but that didn’t mean he had absolutely no plans for today.

“Johnny texted me this morning, asking for your number. Said he wanted to talk to you about something.”

“Here,” you held your hand out for Renjun’s phone. He opened it to his text conversation with Johnny, and you quickly input your digits.

Renjun clicked his phone back off, “Alright, I’ll be out, then.”

“Thank you, Renjun.”

The boy gave you a short nod before departing from your apartment, leaving you with your Nekomata and scrambled eggs.

* * *

Leaving your last class of the day that afternoon, you pulled out your phone and called Johnny, as per his text request from earlier. The line rang a couple times before he picked up.

“Hey, Y/N,” your friend’s voice came through your speakers.

“Hey, Johnny, what’s up?”

“I have an idea, that might help awaken your powers.”

“Your last one wasn’t all that great,” you pointed out with a hint of playfulness.

You could imagine the frank look on Johnny’s face as he paused before continuing, “I wanted to wait for you to get your powers before introducing you to some people. But…”

“I haven’t gotten them yet.”

“Yeah. Do you have plans tonight?”

“Nope.”

“Fantastic. Now you do. Meet me back at the café at seven. Bring whoever you like.”

“Alright…” You agreed, wondering why he wanted you to meet him at his ruined café. “Can you ask Renjun if he’ll come? I’d like for most of the group to be there.”

“Renjun will be there,” the Domeki assured you.

“Don’t force him.”

“I won’t have to.”

“Okay, thank you. I can ask Jeno and Yuta myself. That just leaves Sicheng…”

“I’ve got him.”

“Thank you! Okay, so, seven tonight?” You confirmed the details.

“Yep, at the café.”

“Nice, Taeyong and I will definitely be there.”

“See you then, little lady.”

“Bye, Johnny.”

* * *

When you returned to Lenticular Café that night, you were able to walk right in. No door. Looking around, you were able to fully take in the carnage from the night before: smashed tables and chairs, booths ripped out from the walls, holes in the floor and water spurting forth from them like fountains. It seemed as though not a single wall, piece of furniture, or square foot of the place had been spared. You were greeted by Johnny and Renjun, who didn’t seem to be there against his will. They were standing in a somewhat clear and dry area by the front door, right near where you reckoned Renjun’s host stand would’ve been normally.

“Hey, guys,” you waved cheerfully to them, carefully stepping over the rubble towards them.

A ‘woah!’ came from behind you, and you turned just in time to see Taeyong falling to the floor, his foot having gotten caught on a cracked table leg. You doubled back to offer him a hand up, looking him over for injuries. With a pout on his lips, he held his hand out toward you. A splinter was in the palm of his hand.

With a sigh, you looked to Johnny, “Got any tweezers around here? Or tape, that’ll work too.”

“Some of my office supplies were protected by my desk,” Johnny nodded, cautiously making his way back through the café.

He reemerged from his office with a roll of duct tape.

“Perfect!” You accepted it from him, ripping off a piece.

“Who else is coming, little lady?” Johnny asked, watching as you pressed it over Taeyong’s palm.

“Both Jeno and Yuta will be here,” you informed him, smoothing the tape down. “Did you ask Sicheng?”

“Oh, he’ll be here too.”

At your curious look, he further explained, “When he first started up at your folks’ bookstore, he came by and introduced himself and left his number with us. I gave him a call.”

You took hold of the end of the tape, suddenly ripping it in the opposite direction from how the splinter had entered your Nekomata’s palm, “Thanks, Johnny.”

Taeyong yelped, jerking his hand out of your grip. You triumphantly showed him the tape, a tiny piece of wood stuck to it.

“Oh, thanks.”

A figure at the doorway caught your eye, and Jeno walked in, already yawning, “So what exactly are we doing?”

“Introducing the little lady to some people,” Johnny explained, to which Jeno rolled his eyes.

“You’re as useful as she is.”

Before you could be offended, Sicheng walked in carefully stepping over the rubble. Apparently noticing the busted flooring and pipes, he bowed his head in apology, “Sorry about your pipes, Johnny.”

“You did what you had to do,” he shrugged back.

When Yuta had finally arrived, you all set off. As your large group moved through the city, you kept pace with Johnny.

“So, where are we going?” You questioned, tuning out the light conversations of the other men behind you.

“That’s a surprise, little lady,” he said with a ruffle of your hair.

“Who are we meeting?”

“That’s—”

“Also a surprise?”

Johnny grinned down at you, “Smart little lady.”

“Hey Y/N!” Your name was called out from the back of the group.

Johnny gave you an understanding nod, and you turned to drop to the back. It was Yuta who had called for you, and you fell into step with him, your eyebrow raised.

“What’s up, Yuta?”

“Just wanted to chat,” he shrugged. “How’s school?”

“You sound like all my old relatives who have nothing else to talk about with me.”

The kitsune chuckled, “Sorry. What _do_ you want to talk about?”

“Do you know where we’re going?”

“Nope. I have a hunch but telling you wouldn’t be any fun.”

“You’re impossible.”

“So I’ve heard.”

* * *

Johnny slowly led you all further away from the inner city, out towards an area of nature trails. The cool night air was nice, and you weren’t even bothered by the fact that you’d already been walking for almost twenty minutes with no destination in sight. Some others, were, however.

“Are we there yet?” Jeno asked from the very back, sounding a lot like a petulant child.

“Literally shut the fuck up,” Renjun snapped at him from the middle of the group, right behind you.

“Exercise is good for the soul,” Sicheng chastised the both of them half-heartedly beside Renjun.

“You’ve got to be shitting me—”

Johnny cut into their bickering, “We’re a few minutes away. This might start looking familiar to some of you.”

You looked behind you to Yuta with interest, wanting to see if he was going to comment on his hunch again. He made eye contact with you, raising his eyebrows knowingly for a moment, but ultimately said nothing.

Johnny suddenly took a sharp turn off the trail, the trees immediately thickening around you. A hand grabbed yours, and you turned to see that it was Taeyong, barely stabilizing himself. Of course it was your clumsy Nekomata.

“Watch your step, bub,” you warned him softly, squeezing his hand for a moment.

“I am,” he insisted, eyes glued to his feet and the forest floor.

The trees grew impossibly thick around you, leaves blocking out the light from the half-moon above. You made a move to take your phone out to use its flashlight when Johnny suddenly disappeared from in front of you. It was so dark at this point that you could barely see a foot ahead of you. You turned the flashlight on, sweeping the area in front of you. Johnny was nowhere to be seen, just more branches and leaves and trees.

“Wh—”

Your startled exclamation was cut off by Johnny’s head suddenly popping seemingly out of nowhere.

You might have yelped just a bit. Taeyong, meanwhile, had definitely screamed, right in your ear. Wincing, you covered your ear with your hand that was holding your phone.

“Sorry about that, forgot to warn you guys about the cloaking charm,” he didn’t seem all too apologetic, bright grin across his face. “Come on in.”

Then his head disappeared again.

As you were still petrified, a cracking of leaves and twigs neared until Sicheng was standing beside you.

“Here, I’ll go in ahead of you, to show it’s safe, okay?” He offered, stepping forward and holding his hand out until it suddenly disappeared. “See? And now I’m going to step all the way in.”

Sicheng took another step and was gone from your sight. Your eyebrows shot up.

“Come _on_!” A disgruntled voice called out at you, Jeno, as impatient as before.

You squeezed Taeyong’s hand again before letting it go and taking a hesitant step forward. As you were right in front of where you assumed the barrier to be, your foot caught on something, and you tumbled through it, sprawling unceremoniously onto the ground on the other side.

“Woah! You okay, Y/N?” Johnny’s voice reached you, his hands supporting your arms to help you up.

“Fine,” you mumbled, heat rising to your cheeks at the embarrassing moment you just had.

A giggle reached your ears, and you looked away from Johnny. Two men were there besides Johnny and Sicheng—and Taeyong, who was stumbling in after you, worry apparent as he latched onto you.

They were both rather tall, and the smaller of the two men had been the one giggling. You couldn’t help but stare at him. He looked rather youthful, in addition to being breathtakingly beautiful.

“Oh, my apologies,” he held a hand up to his mouth to stop his laughter. “That was rude of me to laugh at your misfortune.”

“It was kind of funny,” you admitted, brushing the leaves off yourself as best you could with Taeyong latched onto you.

You were aware of the rest of your group coming in behind you, and you took stock of the other unknown man there. He was built, his teal hair visible even in the dim lighting as he gave you a once-over.

“Hm,” was all he said, taking his eyes off of you and putting them back on the man beside him.

Behind them was an old stone structure, a shrine that you hadn’t known was even around here. It was crumbling around the sides, moss growing thick around the stone. Wildflowers grew randomly in patches, and the trees cleared enough to let all the moonlight illuminate the area. Despite not being too far from the city, starlight still glimmered over the clearing.

“You are the Lady Onmyoji,” the first man made eye contact with you knowingly, light smile on his lips as he spoke.

“Uh, Y/N,” you introduced yourself, shaking Taeyong off as you looked to Johnny questioningly.

“I didn’t tell him,” the Domeki held his hands up defensively.

“So you’re an older Ayakashi, then,” you returned your focus to the man.

“Yes,” he confirmed with a nod. “I am Jungwoo, and this is my brother Yukhei. We are Tsukumo-gami, instruments that have existed for so many years that they develop a soul. We are those souls.”

Out of all the Ayakashi you’d encountered, _that_ had to be the wildest one.

“So… what instruments were you guys?” Renjun questioned, moving to stand beside Johnny.

“I was a flute, and Yukhei was a drum.”

This time Jeno spoke up, “Wait, if you guys were instruments, how are you brothers?”

“It’s a spiritual brotherhood,” Yukhei finally said something, his voice deep and resounding. Very drum-like, you had to admit.

“We were instruments owned by the same family for generations before becoming Ayakashi,” Jungwoo explained further. His voice and demeanor were light and pretty, much like a flute.

While all of this was very interesting, you couldn’t forget the reason Johnny had brought you here in the first place, to awaken your powers. You didn’t feel any different, and you had a feeling that any one of the many Ayakashi around you would let you know if you suddenly radiated Onmyoji energy or whatever. Jungwoo had called you an Onmyoji, but he was an older Ayakashi, and could presumably sense that without your powers activated, like Johnny and Kun.

Jungwoo stepped forward to delicately rest a hand on your arm, “Do not fret about your powers, Lady Onmyoji. They will come.”

“When?” You whispered, voice cracking despondently.

That was all you’d heard for the past month: that you’d get your powers, that you were an Onmyoji; when you still weren’t sure of exactly what that was, or what your supposed powers would be anyway. Jungwoo was still smiling, despite the Nekomata beside you bristling and getting tenser with each passing moment that the Tsukumo-gami kept his hand on your arm.

“When they are needed.”

This was fucking ridiculous. You’d already needed them, several times. You were a Wraith magnet, why _wouldn’t_ they be needed?

“Okay, this is bullshit,” Yuta snorted, wrapping an arm around your shoulders to pull you away from Jungwoo. “Y/N’s been attacked by Wraiths, she’s needed her powers before, and they haven’t come. You’re fucking useless, Jungwoo.”

Yukhei seemed around ready to jump in and defend his brother when Jungwoo turned his gaze to the Kitsune, previously kind smile looking oddly cold now as he addressed him, “ _Was_ she attacked?”

“Yes, a bunch of Wraiths came to Lenticular Café and—”

“I wasn’t attacked,” you breathed out in realization.

“Y/N—”

“No, Yuta, I wasn’t attacked. They didn’t attack me,” you stepped out from under his arm, addressing the whole group as all of your experiences came flooding back to you with a new realization. “The first time, they were only attacking Renjun for trying to throw them out. The second time, it wasn’t even an attack, and they were just trying to get revenge on Jeno. And the last time, at the café when we were all there, they never tried to do anything to me. Once they got into the café, they weren’t trying to get through Sicheng’s water shield or anything, they were just standing there. It was like they were watching me.”

A shiver ran up your back as you remembered the way their red orbs had seemed focused on you that night.

“They have not been needed,” Jungwoo confirmed, his smile turning warm again.

“Each time you’ve had someone else there to protect you,” Johnny added. “Me, Renjun, and Jeno the first two times. And then all of us the third time.”

“It is not just that. She was never attacked. The Wraiths never tried to harm her,” Jungwoo shook his head, turning back to you. “You said they were just watching you?”

“Yeah, it was… weird,” you nodded.

“I see…”

After he had trailed, and everyone was quiet for a moment, Renjun cut in shortly, “Care to share what you _‘see?’_ ”

It was then that Yukhei entered the conversation, “Don’t talk to my brother like that.”

Renjun’s hard gaze flicked over to the other Tsukumo-gami, fists clenched and one eye bright jade. With a terrifying sense of déjà vu, you knew you had to deescalate the situation before Renjun punched somebody else. Somebody much bigger and probably much more powerful than Jeno.

“Renjun,” you said his name in a low voice laced with the slightest hint of warning.

It was Sicheng who came to the rescue, stepping forward to bow politely to Jungwoo, “Is there anything else we need to know about Y/N’s powers or the Wraiths, Jungwoo?”

“Nothing that would be of use right now, I am afraid,” the man in question sighed, hand inching up as if it were going towards his neck before he dropped it back down.

“Can’t believe I’m awake for this shit,” Jeno groaned, finishing his complaint off with a yawn.

“Then take a nap, featherbrain,” Taeyong hissed at him.

“Thank you, Jungwoo. I think we should be leaving; nobody wants to have to deal with waking Jeno up,” Johnny bowed to the two brothers.

“Of course,” Jungwoo then turned to you. “Please, come and see us again, Lady Onmyoji. My brother and I are awful lonely up here. Johnny hardly visits anymore, and my other friends have not come by in so long, I had almost forgotten what they looked like.”

Mind still focused on the last part of his statement, wondering who the other friends who hadn’t visited him were, you absentmindedly answered, “Yeah, sure, I will. Bye.”

Taeyong took your hand back in his to start pulling you back towards where you had all come from. The others gave their own goodbyes as well. It all faded into the background as you were guided back out, the shrine disappearing behind you.


End file.
